Eve Benson, Demigod
by SisterOfThalia
Summary: I'd never wish upon you what I got stuck with. Being one of us can kill you. I'm not kidding. But, since you're reading, welcome to the demigod world. My world.
1. We Run From A Freak

**My first story/chapter of a story, so please, no flames. R&R appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, the story would have never made it into publishing. I am clearly not Rick Riordan.**

**Enjoy c[:**

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**We Run From A Freak**

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

For me, well, it's true. I do get watched. Quite frequently, really.

You should probably know my past before I continue. My name is Eve Benson, fourteen year old girl and daughter of Lily Benson. I can't tell you who my dad is. It's… personal. Important.

So anyways, I lived in a neat little condo as a baby. But after 8 months… my dad had to go. I don't remember where my mother went, but she may or may not have followed him. I don't know. So, until about a year ago, I was a student at a school for homeless, parentless, and poor people. I forgot the name of it, but I blame my ADHD and dyslexia. They kill me.

Sorry, I'm getting off topic. Right. Back to my point. I was living there for a while, sharing a dorm with my best friend , Lola Ruman. Funny thing, though, she's also been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. But at the time I had no idea what we'd been in for because of it.

It started when I had started to see monsters. No, not the fake kind in movies, or the kinds in stories that scare little kids. And no, I was _not_ hallucinating.

At age 7, I saw my English teacher turn into some sort of vampire-donkey-automaton hybrid with fangs and fiery hair. It lasted for only a brief second, and no one else but Lola seemed to sense something was wrong. At 9, our vice principal, Mr. Blake, turned into a sleek black seal with sharp claws and a Doberman-like face. Out of nowhere, something sharp and shiny hit him, and Mr. Blake turned into yellow-green dust. Bye bye, Blake. Hello, Ms. Pandora.

But the most recent: a Cyclops. You heard me. The freak only had one eye in the middle of his pudgy head, and I swear he was after me and Lola.

The Cyclops chased us as we ran from hallway to hallway, from the Science lab to homeroom.

To give him props, that thing was quick, despite the fact that he was pretty big and heavy. Suddenly, a boy in his teens appeared at the door that we were about to go through, motioning for us to follow him. He had small horns, a goatee that looked like it had recently been shaved, shaggy goat legs, a tail, and _hooves_. Somehow, something came to my head that it had to be a satyr, even though I knew that shouldn't be possible. And I didn't even really know much about Greek mythology, much less _remember_ something from it. Two days earlier I hadn't even remembered that I had a huge math test coming up the next day. But anyways, I figured following a goat dude would be way better than our alternative- getting pummeled by a giant one-eyed freakazoid. Apparently, Lola had the same idea I was about to have. We would run through the Cyclops' legs and go around the opposite way to confuse him, and then follow the satyr. But that didn't last long when he was about to turn us into grease spots, so we flew out the door.

"Dude, who are you? And what are you supposed to be, a donkey man?" I demanded. I wanted to make sure he wasn't, like, a kidnapper or anything before I followed him. He glared at me, clearly not wanting to be called 'donkey man'.

After I apologized, taking his hint, he admitted that his name was Barry (which I found funny, because if you just replaced the 'a' with an 'e', it'd be 'Berry'. Though I think that was his parents' intentions. I decided not to say anything) and quickly explained that he'd take us to Camp Half-Blood (wherever that was).

Barry found us a cab courtesy of whoever the Gray Sisters were, and we headed off to some silly _camp_.

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	2. My Life Becomes Torturesome

**Quick update, I know, but I already have 5 chapters finished and I'm eager to post and attract readers.**

**Disclaimer: Does my writing look like Rick's to you? No, it doesn't.**

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** My Life Becomes Torturesome**

The cab ride to Camp Half-Blood was long, and boring. And torturous, for these reasons:

. The Gray Sisters, whose names I'd learned to be Wasp, Tempest, and Anger, were always bickering. And not about the usual things, like one of the others stole something of theirs, or something somewhat _human_. But of course, Anger was just talking to Tempest about an eye, and then Wasp joined in and they started fighting the entire way there. And something about a tooth.

. Lola was poking me out of boredom. Yeah, real nice there, buddy.

. Barry kept shuffling his hooves around and making noises against the seat. And then he pulled out reed-pipes (don't ask me how I know what they are) and played some random song that hurt my ears.

. I was completely bored. And since _someone_ wouldn't stop poking my shoulder, I just had to look outside at the speeding blur of nothing. We were going that fast, even with those taxi drivers (Did they even have a license? If they did, I'd just snatch it from them. Then they couldn't torture us anymore.) fighting in the front seats.

And I didn't even have all my belongings with me. Barry knew that monsters wouldn't go away anymore, and that we could only take the three things most important to us. At least donkey-dude let us have anything at all, I guess. "Normally, a satyr doesn't even let you grab some items. They just bring you, and nothing else," he had told me.

I decided I'd finally break up the three torture factors and get a new topic, when Lola beat me to it. "Guys, I normally love a good fight, but come on. Can't you, like, get over it?" she said kind-naturedly. I didn't think that my best friend would say something like that. Especially in a nice way. But at least it got her to stop poking me eternally.

Now, believe it or not, I was overjoyed to see Camp. I stepped over my friends and jumped out of the cab, cherishing the fact that I was no longer going to be tortured by the Gray Sisters.

Barry, upset that I had stepped on him and 'almost crushed his reed pipes', climbed out of the cab and tossed Tempest a couple of gold coins: drachma. Lola followed after him and, not knowing how Barry had drachma and not normal money, handed the Gray Sisters a couple of quarters, which seemed really weird because she was normally very protective of her money. I guessed she was just either really interested in this whole 'camp' thing, or my best friend had gone loopy.

When the three of us stood dangerously close to a large dragon that had itself wrapped around a pine tree, I tried to decipher what the sign in the strawberry fields said. To me, it looked like: Eplhid swerrbyatr srcviee. It took me a minute to realize that it said Delphi Strawberry Service.

"Barry?" I asked. He turned to me, and I realized I was interrupting his and Lola's 'interesting' conversation. Oh well. "What's Delphi Strawberry Service?" It seemed to me that Barry was choking on something (maybe a bit of reed pipe), but it turned out he was chuckling, as if someone who had never even been here before didn't know what Delphi Strawberry Service was just _had_ to be hilarious. For the first time today, Lola actually glared at Barry. He shut up immediately, like he knew Lola was something dangerous that he shouldn't fight with. I thought this was sort of funny, but I said nothing. Finally, the boy explained to me what it was.

Apparently, Delphi Strawberry Service was the camp's under-cover name if they were needed on a mission or something. Weird.

Barry explained to us about the Greek myths, and Zeus, and blah blah. "Goat-man, get on with it. We know about all that stuff," I said sharply. It came out harsher than I'd meant to. But he ignored me and kept going until he got to the fact that the Greek gods were supposedly still alive, had demigod children, we were demigods, something about Western Civilization, and that monsters would attack demigods if we were too powerful. I figured he had lost it. He may not have had 'it' anyways.

And so we walked into Camp Half-Blood, my life taking a torturous turn.


	3. Lucky You

**More quick updates... sorry if that's a bit annoying.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, ya hear me?**

**Lucky You**

I couldn't adjust to the whole 'demigod' thing. I couldn't.

While Lola & I were taking our own little tour, some kids from Aphrodite came up to us. We were mobbed by a giant blob of make-up and girly items.

Instantaneously, I disliked those campers. Now I had a cabin to put on my 'dislike' list.

But one child of Aphrodite in particular caught my attention. She was the one who had yelled at her cabinmates to lay off, and then helped us up. Oh, what an act the gal could put up.

"Rosa VanCleaven, daughter of Aphrodite at your service." she said, smiling.

Let me describe the little snot-rag for you. Rosa was a 5'4" 15 year old girl. Ok, so she was a year older than me. No problem. Anyways, she had dark brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders and stopped at about a little bit higher than her behind. And in that dark brown hair was a blood-red rose. She had tanned skin and brown eyes that matched her hair almost perfectly. So basically, a very 'pretty' teenager with an attitude.

Wonder why I'm trashing on her? It's all true. Just let me continue and you'll see what I mean.

So, after Lola thanked her- still unlike my friend-, Rosa warned me that she 'ruled' the camp and that I had better not get in her way. "Yeah, right. And I own Golfland," I countered. That got VanCleaven steaming. "Did you just insult _me_?" she said sharply. Lola nodded and smirked at her. That was more like it. Anyhow, Rosa pulled out a spear from nowhere and backed me up against her cabin. "Look, punk, you lay off or I'll-," I started, but was interrupted by some teenage boy- about my age, I'd guess- with black hair, light brown eyes, and pale skin.

"Rosa, chill out." he said, taking hold of the spear that was dangerously close to me. She rolled her eyes, let go of the spear, allowed the boy to set it aside, and smiled at him. The boy wasn't even looking at me. "Remember what we went through the other day? People aren't shish kebabs. Okay?" He gave her a mischievous smile. Rosa blushed- clearly having a crush on whoever this was- and nodded, picking up her spear and walking away. I could've sworn I saw her glare at me, and then she and Lola had a stare-down. Lola won.

The dude who'd just saved me watched her to make sure she didn't hurt anyone, and then turned to me. "Sorry about Rosa. She doesn't get along too well with people outside of her cabin," he explained. "Clearly," I muttered. The boy smiled at me and then shook my hand (which I didn't exactly appreciate). "Kyle Delnz," he introduced, "Son of Apollo." Kyle and I stood in silence for a minute, and then I said, "Eve Benson. I don't know who my dad is." He looked me over. "Hm. Shame," he said simply, putting his hands in his pockets. Then a conch horn blew, and Kyle grinned widely. I raised an eyebrow. "What?" I asked. When he didn't answer, I said it again, a bit more forcefully. "Lunch time," he said happily.

Lunch wasn't exactly fun. Since Lola and I hadn't been claimed yet, we were forced to squeeze in with the Hermes table. Plus, Aphrodite's table was right next to us, so VanCleaven could glare at me all she wanted. Wood nymphs passed out plates of bread, cheese, grapes, barbeque, and other things I wasn't too fond of. The only thing in there I liked was the barbeque.

Next to me was a son of Hermes, named Louis Miller. "Hey. I'm new, so, could you tell me where exactly the vending machine is?" I asked, staring at the empty drinking glass right in front of me. Louis looked at me like I was some hobo running with a sack of money along Long Island Sound. "There's no vending machine," he said indifferently. "You say what drink you want and it'll appear in the glass." Then he looked at his empty glass. "Gatorade." And suddenly his cup had a yellow drink filling it to the brim. Louis smiled to himself and drank his beverage.

I nearly forgot to tell you what he looks like: He's a blonde dude with a light tan, and blue-brown eyes. And while we're on the subject of looks, you don't even know what Lola & I look like. So, I have light brown hair that ends at my elbow, and dark green eyes. Lola has curly blond hair that ends in-between her shoulders and her elbow, blue-green eyes, and deathly pale skin.

So anyways, I looked at my empty cup. "Root Beer," I told it, and the glass immediately contained the soda. I smiled and brought the glass to my lips. It'd been so long since I'd had Root Beer. Then the centaur man, our activities director, Chiron, stomped his hoof on the ground and raised his glass. "To the gods!" he exclaimed, and everyone in the dining pavilion, in unison, said it, too. Everyone except for Lola and me.

And then for some reason, everyone got out of their seats and scraped a bit of the food into the hearth. Lola looked completely confused. But we did as they did, and sat down again. They even said silent prayers to their parents. I just scoffed as I tossed some food into the flames.

When everyone was done, we left the dining pavilion and started daily activities.

After me and Lola had stuffed our only belongings into a little corner of the horribly un-tidy Cabin 11, the Hermes cabin, we had another encounter with Rosa VanCleaven.

"Did you think you could get away so easy, Benson?" she said cruelly, holding the shaft of her spear. Her dark brown hair, bundled into a ponytail, shone in the sunlight. I tried to walk past her, but she stopped me with the tip of that stupid weapon. Kyle Delnz came up to her and tried to talk Rosa out of it, but she glared at him and looked to me again. "Stay away, and we might just have a compromise," she growled, looking fierce. "Lucky for you, I think I can do that," I murmured, smirking at her. Lola suddenly came up and whacked the spear away from me, and we made a quick get-away, with Kyle following.

Somehow I knew that life at camp wouldn't go so well. With people like Rosa, you can't have a good time.

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	4. I Dodge A Swiss Army

**Disclaimer: You get the fact that I'm not Rick by now, right? O.o**

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I Dodge A Swiss Army

The next day at camp wasn't exactly the best day of my life.

Still unclaimed, I got up out of my tattered sleeping bag in the Hermes cabin, and avoided stepping on the Stolls.

Oh yeah, the Stolls. Travis & Connor Stoll, two twin sons of Hermes- and the ultimate pranksters. They were so good at robbing the Camp store and playing tricks on people that they could be named 'Best Prankers In History' in seconds. One of them is taller than the other, yet I seem to forget who.

Anyway, I was doing good until Louis saw me leaving. His voice coming from nowhere definitely caught my attention, and I accidentally shoved the right arm of one of Hermes' daughters, Brenda Metley. "Eve, what are you doing?" Louis asked, his voice sounding somewhat hoarse. I turned around and glared at him. "It's late enough, I can get up if I want to," I said sharply, leaving a frown on Louis' face as he laid down on his bunk again.

I crept out the door and saw some campers who I had met late at night the day before. I saw Breena Bryans from Apollo, McKenna Smith and her brother Zachary, from Athena, an already-awake Kyle, and the face of evil- Rosa VanCleaven.

With that stupid spear of hers she walked up to me with a grin on her face. "Mornin', Ella," she cooed, smiling in a sickeningly sweet way. I glowered. "It's Eve. And what's it to you, punk?" I demanded of her, figuring she'd be up to something. Instead she kept on smiling ridiculously and giving me insincere compliments. I knew they were insincere because they were coming from a certain daughter of Aphrodite's mouth. I sighed and walked away, leaving that little rat in the dust.

I walked over to the archery range where Kyle was trying to help out a teenager with messy black hair and sea-green eyes. "Hey, Kyle," I said simply, deciding to sit down on a bench that sat underneath a shady tree, right next to him and his friend. When he noticed me, he smiled, instructed the kid to do something with his bow, and then came over. "About time. I've been looking for excitement all morning. Instead all I've gotten to do is help Kelp-Head over there," Kyle said happily. Of course, the dude he had been helping was offended. Kyle just smirked at him, and the boy tried to shoot the arrow. That didn't go so well. Rather than hitting the target, he hit a stunned Eden Comstock, son of Dionysus. Kyle rolled his eyes and got up from the bench, helping 'Kelp-Head' re-balance his arrow while a couple of Apollo campers took Eden to the infirmary.

"Okay, Percy, just loosen the grip there…. aim a little more to your left… and you should be good!" Kyle exclaimed, rolling his eyes as he came back to the bench, but Percy only nodded, not noticing that Kyle was making fun of him behind his back.

I finally decided that, after watching Kelp-Head shoot arrows the wrong way so many times, I'd go to the Pegasus stables.

After finding a just-right winged horse, named Jet, I was ready to go.

Let me describe Jet for you: light tan fur, a slightly darker colored mane, striking purple-blue eyes, and on one of his legs he has this white sock. His wings were pure black, and when he flew you'd swear he was some sort of aircraft. That's why his name was Jet.

My opponent that we were supposed to out-fly was a blondie with gray eyes and a light tan, named Chloe Solemnburg. Apparently, she was one of the camp's best flyers- and the daughter of Athena (who is supposed to be all smart and stuff, I'd learned). This would be a hard beat.

But I wasn't really afraid of her; just because she was a daughter of Athena, doesn't mean I had to be frightened. It's not like she was a hydra.

So I got onto Jet and we took off.

Okay, I can't exactly describe what I was feeling when we flew: worried, proud, excited, and a whole bunch of other weird emotions. All I knew was that I was flying, and I wasn't sure I liked it.

Chloe dodged a huge oak tree by the woods, and I snickered the slightest bit- a daughter of Athena who almost got herself knocked out. Funny, huh? I thought so, too, until Jet and I suddenly lost focus and we went plummeting down.

Now, I blame Chloe. For the reason of nothing. I just felt like blaming someone so I couldn't be labeled as careless. What it really was? Don't ask. It's confusing. I'm pretty sure it was these weird metal birds with beady eyes and terrible voices. They threw rocks at Jet's wings, and then we plummeted. I just didn't feel like blaming fake animals.

By the time I was out of the infirmary, Kyle helping me out, it was lunchtime already. Yeah, I had been in there that long, apparently. So we walked out of the infirmary and headed off for some grub.

I know that it was a little early for lunch, but I didn't care. Just so long as I had food.

Anyway, I sat at the squished Hermes table as everyone did the same thing they did yesterday, only this time Lola and I joined in. I even said a silent prayer to my dad, asking if he could claim me sometime soon. I remember adding something like, _Preferably, like, _now. So basically, just your average lunch at Half-Blood Hill.

But then Rosa started to get bored, and decided to throw a wad of chicken at my head.

I stood up, and I was about to say something, but then the camp's director, Mr. D (aka Dionysus, God of Wine), got a purplish fire in his eyes, and I sat down. Who'd want to mess with a god? But Chiron just looked sternly at me and nodded kindly when I sat down.

Though VanCleaven kept throwing little grapes at the part in my hair, and I couldn't take it anymore- I tossed a piece of barbeque right at her face. Then I smiled triumphantly at her and I sat down again, drinking the Diet Coke which I had made my glass fill up with. But of course, I was pummeled by a chunk of Swiss cheese. Go figure.

I threw a piece of bread at her perfectly combed and parted hair, and that did it. In Rosa's messed-up mind, I had crossed the line for sure.

I dodged an army of Swiss cheese bits and chunks.

Not to my surprise, Lola defended me. She tossed some sliced watermelon at Rosa, and soon the entire dining pavilion was a Food-Fight Arena.

I wasn't shocked that a lot of people sided with Aphrodite scum, though a few decided to come and back me up. Even the enemy's sisters could pick sides well. Or maybe they didn't want to face the wrath of Eve Benson.

I had Kyle, Lola, and some random blonde dude who I'd never seen before, right next to me, shields up and arms poised to throw. Mr. D didn't do anything but watch the full-fledged war of fruits and meat, and even Chiron seemed just to be watching casually, as if this were normal (which it might've been).

The blonde boy next to me yelled something like, "Hit the deck!" and everyone on our side flopped to the floor as a few children of Hermes who had decided to back Rosa (at least Louis, Brenda, Travis, and Connor were with me) flew above us with their flying shoes, shooting a whole bunch of random food items with an old paint-ball gun. At least I got to eat a strawberry out of it, when Kate Trenton from Nemesis somehow snuck a pair of flying shoes and shot it at my open mouth.

After several minutes of condiments and cheeses and breads being thrown around (well, actually, the condiments were squirted out of bottles), the war was over. The side of the devil's daughter (maybe not the devil. She's a child of Aphrodite, not Hades or Satan) had won against us. Stupid love-bird.

Once an exciting lunch was finished, I was introduced to the blonde guy by Kyle. Apparently, he was his best friend. But that's not the point. He was a son of Hephaestus, named Greg Willins. And that's all I really bothered to learn about. I didn't care too much. But at least befriending him meant I got to sculpt things and forge swords and stuff. I knew that had to be better than foot-racing, or rock-wall-climbing (which, as I was told by many campers, was the lava pit of ultimate doom, if you didn't happen to be careful enough).

I walked over to the bench where I was sitting earlier, and Greg followed. We talked for a few minutes- just a normal conversation, really- and I learned some more things about him. He was… interesting. No, I didn't like him. Get that out of your head, reader. I do not like this son of Hephaestus, and I don't like Kyle Delnz, either. At least not in _that_ way.

"So.. how do you like being a demigod?" he asked me a few minutes into our conversation. _Oh, Hades. What should I tell him? That I hate it and I always will?,_ I thought. After a minute of not talking, Greg looked at me critically. "You, um, ok?" he asked, a worried expression on his face. I decided to simply say this: "I love being a demigod. It's cool. And yeah, I'm fine."

Yeah, it was a pure lie. Your point? I couldn't just say that I hated it with my guts. Even though I'm rough, doesn't mean I have to be insensitive. That's Rosa's job.

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**If you people don't like the fact that I'm Mormon, and I bothered to put some form of reference (AKA putting Satan's name), then you can stop reading ^-^ I give you permission**


	5. I Take A Hint

**I shouldn't have to keep putting disclaimers, now should I? Oh, well, for the people who are not like Athena, I don't own Percy Jackson.**

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**I Take A Hint**

Ok, so later that night wasn't the greatest night I've ever had.

You can _never_ get a good rest when your best friend is poking you _**again**_ and you can't help but think about your life. And the fact that you're half Greek god.

I started to think about the past. When I was 7, and saw my English teacher turn into a vampire-donkey-automaton hybrid with fangs and fiery hair. I now knew that it had been an _empousa_. And Mr. Blake… he was a telkhine. A stupid seal-dog with sharp claws. And then I thought about the things I had never even paid too much attention to before. 2 years before, I had seen a scaly snake-woman walk into the school and speak to Ms. Pandora. I thought it was a person who was dressed up for Halloween way too early. But in reality, that had been a _dracenae_. Then all those thoughts brought back information to my brain. My school was Symphony Elementary (though it was a school for all ages). I lived in New York. My mother, Lily, was a blonde, clammy woman who had loved my dad so much, she tried to follow him to the tip-top of the Empire State Building, the location of Mt. Olympus. Obviously, he was a god. But that wasn't what I cared about. I needed to know if he loved me. I prayed, asking if he'd claim me soon.

More things came back. I saw my mother follow my dad. I couldn't make out much, because it was a fuzzy memory, but I _did _see that this man was muscular, and a bit taller than average. Of course, since he was a god, he had a weapon at his side. Just in case.

But once too much came back to me, I fell asleep.

I'd rather not say what my dream was that night, but you probably want to know, huh? Have it your way.

I was throwing javelins at the camp with some red-headed guy with shining silver glasses and somewhat tattered clothes. Clearly, a storm was brewing up in the sky, meaning Zeus wasn't happy about something. I'd learned from Percy that a large storm probably meant a god had been robbed of a belonging. Anyway, a giant Cyclops walked up to us. The same one that had almost killed Lola and me. I had no idea who this boy that was next to me was, but he seemed terrified. He did what a smart demigod should do- tossed the javelin at the monster and hope for the best. Sadly, the Cyclops was only hit in the loincloth, so he obviously wasn't affected. Or amused. He picked this stranger up, by the neck, and tossed him at the armory section. He fell hard on his back, also hitting the blade of a sword with it. Dream-me looked away. I still had no clue who he was, but I did know one thing: he'd gone to make a permanent visit to Hades and Persephone.

Then my dream shifted. There was that boy again, though─ contradicting my previous dream ─ this time he was alive and well. With him, I saw someone I didn't expect: Rosa VanCleaven.

I knew they were running from _something_, but at the moment I couldn't make out what it was.

Cyclops boy was back. Again.

Rosa didn't look as pretty and petite as she did here at the camp. Her clothes were even more beat up and ripped than her companion's. Her hair was a total mess─ I knew her mother wouldn't be too happy about that ─ and she wasn't even violent looking. She almost seemed… kind. I didn't think I'd ever see that.

Once again, I'm getting off topic. Apologies. Anyhow, the two were running down a steep hill, chased by the pudgy ogre thing. They were unarmed, and clearly sleep deprived. Reason it was obvious? The boy had so many stress lines and other sleep deprivation signs, Aphrodite probably would've switched to devine form and disinigrated the kid right on the spot.

Anyways, the monster had them cornered. My enemy look so scared, I almost felt bad for her. "Simon, we've got to find a way out of here!" Rosa said, trying to find a way out of where they were, while pointing out the obvious. I was still confused, but at least I knew his name now. Simon.

Simon looked at her. "There is no way out," he said. Then, pointing to the Cyclops, said, "Unless you consider being monster chow an option!"

He was right. That was their only way out, and even dangerous me would've tried to find an alternative. Better than becoming a grease spot, I'll bet Simon could assure you. Rosa was hurrying him too much. As they tried to figure strategies, their attacker pulled out a 7 ft. long spear─ resembling Rosa's a bit too much, even though it was, like, 4 times bigger than the one I'd almost been skewered with ─ and raised it. Seconds after he threw, red-headed dude was out. Gone to Hades, again. And certainly not coming back, _**again**_.

Rosa screamed so loudly, I'm betting you that if vampires were real, and they were somewhat nearby, they'd die from the sound. I almost woke up, and I seriously wish I did, because then Rosa took a rusted dagger from Simon's pocket and tossed it up at the Cyclops, causing it to blow up and spread green gunk around the forest area they were in. VanCleaven retrieved the dagger and wept over her loss. I knew I'd feel the same way if I'd lost Lola.

But I took a hint: this was Rosa's love, long before she'd have met Kyle. It would be worse than losing a normal friend. I almost wanted to cry with Rosa.

The dream changed again. The room was completely dark, and I heard a voice coming from somewhere quite deep in the ground, and it radiated power so huge I almost wanted to bend to its command, even if I didn't know what the heck it was. I couldn't understand it clear enough, but the voice sounded like daggers scraping against iron.

I figured this was the Underworld, but I knew better than that. This was no underground palace. Rather, it was a chasm. A chasm so dark, deep, and mysterious, even the bravest probably wouldn't go here.

I heard the old, scratchy voice again.

_My minions, we _will _make a plan good enough to destroy this hero_, it said. The way he said 'hero', it sounded like he wanted to puke at the thought of whoever-this-was being a hero.

_But, sir, we've tried. As hard as possible_, came a voice that sounded oddly familiar. Maybe I'd heard them talking at a local market or something, when Symphony Elementary made our mid-week food-supply trip. I wasn't so sure.

_WE WILL HAVE HER DEAD!_ , came the more intimidating voice again.

So it was a _she_. Comforting, ain't it?

Tension gripped the air. _Leave now, minions. I sense a presence that I must deal with_ , he said. Whoever these 'minions' were, I guess they needed to follow orders from 'master'. And so they left.

_Bow, small godling. Maybe I shall not have you killed, should you join me._

I wanted to say, _'Heck no, weirdo!'_, but I knew this was most likely a force I shouldn't be talking with in the first place.

"I'd rather not." I expounded. That didn't make the mysterious voice feel any better. I knew that, because I could feel time slowing, as if I was walking through a field of gelatin. I tried to speak, but the time slowed so much that I couldn't even open my mouth. That was what Chasm Dude wanted.

_Follow your Crooked One, insolent child. Don't be a spawn of the gods._

That sentence echoed through my head many times before I finally woke up.

Crooked One.

Kronos.

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**Hehe D Suspense.**

**By the way, if you can guess who Eve & Lola's godly parents are, I'll find a way to squeeze you in.**

**Contest idea (c) ThreeFunkySisters**


	6. A Strange Happening

**You get the drill. Read, review, don't flame (please D: ), and know that I don't own Percy :) Bye bye *poof***

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**A Strange Happening**

I love camp. You can just sit there all day, get pummeled by weirdo teenager girls that hate your guts, almost get hit in the head with an arrow courtesy of Percy Jackson, avoid getting your insides spewed and skewered, and even eat some disgusting food in the dining pavilion. Lovely, isn't it?

Not.

I was hanging out with Lola and Barry in the forest, telling them about my dreams. I'd learned the past, and discovered that an evil titan was after a special girl. With my luck, it'd be, oh, I don't know, _me_. But with any better luck, Rosa would be done with thanks to Kronos.

"Hm… that's a little creepy." Barry commented. "Are you sure he wasn't talking about another Crooked One?" To Lola, that note was convincing. But I saw through it.

"No. It was Kronos, Barry. Do you want me to call you Mule Freak? Or will you cooperate with me?"

He shut up at that.

"Well, 'E', I hate to say this, but if he's really this titan man, and he's after a girl, it sounds like he wants _you_. Hate to break that to you, bud, but it's dangerously possible." Lola said somewhat warmly. I was going to kill her, unless she was the one they wanted and got to her before I did. Oh well. I'd talk to a Hermes kid, smuggle in some whipped cream. It was going straight to her pillow.

"Thanks, Lola, for making me feel so… _special_. I think I'm gonna go back to Cabin 11 and mope now." I said, giving her my death glare. I decided to take some pity on the satyr, though, so I just gave him a small warning look and took off. I felt really, really weird. Like I was being followed. And believe me, honey, I've been stalked by monsters plenty of times. I whirred around, to find absolutely nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a girl─ about 17, maybe 16 was at my shoulders. She had honey blonde hair, that was in vague curls. She was holding a Yankees cap, though she didn't look like too much of a sports lover. Her stormy gray eyes seemed to hold you, like she could seriously hurt you. Child of Athena, alert. I repeat, Child of Athena, alert, alert.

"Wha- who are you? How did you do that?" I asked in a shocked tone. Don't look at me like you wouldn't be startled by a girl appearing from nowhere, because I tell you, it was pretty freaky.

"Annabeth Chase"

"Daughter of Athena." I finished for her. "I figured that one out on my own."

Annabeth smirked at me, but she stuffed the hat in her pocket and let it go. "I can help." she offered, even though I had absolutely no clue what the heck she was talking about. I gave her a look, warning that I didn't understand, and she continued, saying, "The dreams? I can help explain them a little more. You do want to know more about it all, right?"

I nodded earnestly, and she explained to me that Kronos was always after something or someone. I didn't look like a child of the 'Big Three' to her, so she told me that I probably wouldn't be a big prophecy child. I'd be safe. That made me feel absolutely fuzzy. Though I'll admit, I did feel a bit safer.

Then I thought about something for the first time: how did she know about the dream? I had barely come back from telling Barry and Lola, and now suddenly this random girl found out. What in the world?

I got the sudden feeling that I had a stalker.

Annabeth and I decided to go to the fighting arena, and take a seat. For one, there was entertainment down there. Another, it was pretty quiet. No one would hear us.

Oh, and by the way, I have an irrational fear of dogs, so you'll understand why I reacted the way I did to what happened next.

Imagine Clifford the Big Red Dog. Picture him + half of him. You get a hellhound. So, basically, I saw a giant mongrel thing even bigger than the childhood classic right in front of me. I screamed my lungs off, and almost fainted. Annabeth let out a half-hearted laugh, and helped me up, because I had fallen over with fear. "There's nothing wrong. That's just Mrs. O'Leary." she explained.

"Yeah. _Just_. That's like saying, 'Oh! We're just the offspring of all-powerful immortal beings! No worries!', you weirdo. WE HAVE A GIANT HELLHOUND RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES, AND YOU DON'T EXPECT ME TO SCREAM!"

With that, Mrs. O'Leary pouted sadly. It seemed I had displeased her. I furrowed my brow, and slowly and cautiously pat her nose. It was way bigger than my palm, I noted.

Mrs. O'Leary went into puppy mode, which I was kinda surprised about. Here she was, a giant hellhound, and she was acting like a Jack Russell Terrier. She yapped at me, and wagged her tail expectantly. I looked to my new friend, and she pulled out a big, rubber, red ball that read Waterland Denver, Co. and threw it across the arena. Soon, the ball was in pieces at our feet. I was disgusted by the drool, but I picked up what was most of it, and tossed it. Mrs. O'Leary retrieved it, and put it in my lap. I would need a change in clothes later, considering I had a bunch of monster drool on my jeans. I decided to get a bone from Annabeth's backpack that she carried around, and give it to her. Mrs. O'Leary's tail thumped happily against the seats as she chewed on her new reward. I picked up the torn up ball from off my lap, and I gave it to Annabeth, who didn't look too pleased with me. Too bad, O Smart One. You get to keep the yucky ball.

She continued to tell me things, our little hellhound interruption behind us.

I couldn't pay all my attention to her. ADHD brain, remember? Sometimes I listened to what she had to say, sometimes I was watching Mrs. O'Leary, from time to time I'd watch the sword fighters. But most of my attention was on the birds that had hurt Jet's wings with stones. They were up in the sky, occasionally doing to other campers what they'd done to me. Eve Benson was no happy girl.

Finally, Athena's daughter finished up talking about Rosa, and that she definitely was quite a pain. But with reason. This was where I was truly interested in what she was saying.

"When Rosa got to camp, she warned us of tragedy, and that there was a, quote, 'giant maniac man-killing Cyclops on the loose', unquote. The first few weeks, she was fidgety. Very fidgety. It took a while for her to warm up to us. She was horribly upset from the death of her best friend, Simon Albuquerque. He was a son of Athena. Rosa fed us the whole story. She" Annabeth was cut off by Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes. "Oh, hello Chris." she said, the slightest hint of distaste in her voice. I knew that he was cool with a lot of people, including Annabeth, so she was probably just annoyed that she'd been interrupted.

"Time for rock-wall climbing, Annabeth." he said, smiling. She did not look very happy with that, but she reluctantly got up, took her things, and left me with only a child of the god of thieves. I wasn't too thrilled about that.

Chris Rodriguez was a Hispanic dude who was dating Clarisse La Rue, from Ares. He had been through the Labyrinth, and came out with no hint of sanity. It took him a while to heal up from his shock. He had once been on Kronos' side, I'd heard, so I decided to be wary. Just in case.

But, luckily, that wasn't needed. Chris was a real nice guy, and we talked for a little bit. But then he had Greek lessons, so he had to leave.

I was alone, sitting in the arena with only a hellhound for company. And the thing is, I was horrified of her. I knew she was the world's only friendly hellhound, but that didn't make me feel any nicer.

I decided the thing I couldn't do: sit here all day.

So I walked down to the main part of the arena and looked around in the sword section. They were all celestial bronze blades, some with designs on the grips. I picked one up. Heavy, I thought. Putting it back, I picked up another. Much too long. I put that back, too. It took me a while before I found a balanced sword. The grip was sort of soft, and it was jet black. There was an intricate golden design on it, though it took me a while to realize that it was only Ancient Greek. It read, 'Pain', but I couldn't really see what the Greek looked like, truly.

I tested my new sword out on a practicing dummy. One thrash, and Mrs. O'Leary had a new head-shaped chew toy.

I found the weapon's scabbard, and sheathed it. No one was here to help me practice, anyway.

That was, until Greg Willins walked into the arena.

"Hey, Kyle's looking for you." he told me. "He wanted to know if you wanted to go do some foot-races with him. He needs a partner, apparently, and I guess he likes you."

I told him that I didn't really want to, but that Lola would love to help out. That would put a twist in her toga. Maybe I didn't have to find whipped cream after all…? Nah, I'd still get my laugh.

Whipped cream: Check

Foot-ache: Check

Operation Annoy Lola was now a go.

Greg took off without another word, to tell Kyle. I was left alone in the arena, again, and if Greg told Lola that it was my idea, I'd get another days worth of poking. I still question why she does that to me out of boredom and/or sudden want.

Wonder what I did next? I probably did some heroic thing, like stop Mrs. O'Leary from choking on her bone, right? Wrong. I just sat there. Yup. Nothing better to do, at all. I just waited, hoping that maybe my friend would come back.

To my happiness, Greg did come back. Though he did fill me in that Lola was fuming mad, and planned on giving me a beating later. Wonderful. Kyle was a little upset, but he settled for my angry friend.

I pulled my new sword out. "I need some help practicing. Mind?" I asked, because I seriously sucked. Sure, I cut a dummy's head off. Your point?

No, seriously. I don't see you with a point.

Anyways, Greg agreed to do some sparring. He quickly ran over to his cabin, grabbed his sword, then returned. He taught me how to reflect, defend, jab, stab, and a whole bunch of other things that I'd prefer not list.

My luck was actually kind of… good. I accidentally scratched Greg's arm, and it was seriously bleeding. I called out loudly for an Apollo camper (I honestly didn't care who), and Owen Salvatore was to the rescue. Though sadly, I recognized him as one of the people who had sided with Rosa VanCleaven in our little food fight. I was hoping, maybe, the incident had gone past everyone, but he told me that I had 'bad aim'. Now another person was going to have whipped cream in their pillow when they woke up.

After my friend was proven okay, Owen gave me a small pep talk about hurting people. I waved him off, and he left. Good riddance.

What was I saying about good luck? Forget it. I was nearly killed. It was like reliving the Rosa-Run-In, almost. At least that time, Lola and Kyle had saved my sorry butt. I wasn't even scratched. But here, oh boy, was I scratched. I felt like I was about to erupt into flames and go to Hades.

Speaking of Hades, I'll move on. Capture The Flag was the following day, and everyone was excited. Except me, who kept getting smacked upside the head by Lola when she figured out that Chris and I had found a way to dump all that whipped cream into her sleeping bag. She was not a happy girl, and because of that, neither was I. Being whacked isn't fun. But anyhow, we were all getting ready for the 'big night'. I didn't see why everyone was so happy about the game. You run, you grab a flag, you run, you win. What was the big deal?

My question never got answered by the camper I was talking to. Chiron announced that today, the two leading teams were Demeter (cue the applause from Cabin 4, and Demeter fans) and Janus (mostly boo's, a few cheers from Janus' kids). Demeter got Athena, Ares, Poseidon, Hecate, Hermes, Hades, Apollo, and Dionysus. Janus got everyone else (which was a dang lot, including all those minor gods). Because they got so much, I almost envied that cabin's counselor, Vicki Osborne, who cheered the loudest of all.

Aphrodite's cabin never played. They just sat by the lake, admiring themselves. I was extremely pleased when an annoyed camper pushed Rosa in. Sure, I was the annoyed camper who pushed her in, I don't care. I learned that if you don't get caught, you can get away with a lot of things at Camp Half-Blood.

Anyways. Moving on. Changing subject. Our team captain, Katie Gardner, got our group to form a large circle of heads. We talked strategy for about four minutes, then we split up. Sadly, I was on flag duty with some moody kid from Hades named Nico di Angelo. We had the flag at Zeus' Fist (aka The Poop Pile. Don't ask), so we got to protect a flag that was in the middle of a huge rock mound. Whoop-de-doo.

There was a lot of action going on around me that I couldn't quite figure. I was too tired, or whatever excuse I had thought of at the time.

Nico didn't really try to make conversation. He just stood there and looked as bored as I think I've ever seen a person.

Some big, ugly lug from the Morpheus cabin was messing around with my Lola. Nobody does. Er, nobody nobody, not Nobody. Long story.

Anyways, they were sword fighting, when the guy purposely tripped her and she fell into the lake. I commanded Nico to take good guard watch, while I confronted the jerk who was messing with my friend. I didn't care if I had been smacked silly by Lola, this guy would get it.

We were shouting at each other, and it became a fight. My gal was still in the river with all the naiads and fishes, but that would wait. The only thing processing through my mind was the word: KILL.

I had finally made the Morpheus dude go away (the power of force is a wonderful thing, no?), when I saw a glowing sensation behind me. I turned, and saw a huge, lit-up symbol above Lola's head. It looked like a skull, I'd guess, and Nico didn't look thrilled.

Chiron walked over, armor and all, and announced, "Heroes, bow, as we have found a new child of Hades. The god of death, metals, dirt, and the Underworld. All, hail, Lola Ruman."

Everyone seemed to be bowing (even Rosa, which seriously shocked me), so I went down and did it. Although, I admit, bowing to your best friend is a little awkward.

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**Like it? My longest chapter so far, so... let's see how it goes with my viewers :D**

**Oh, and since Lola's been claimed, you clearly can't guess her anymore xD Just try out Eve. Goddess Of Discord And Cookies *cue applause* has guessed her already, so she gets cookies :) You'll probably get them if you're good and/or guess her parent, too, so try it out if you want to have a say in what happens next or get a lifetime supply of magical cookies o:**


	7. Apollo Tricks Us All

**Sorry for the late updates, everybody! I'm back :)**

**Disclaimer: It's catching on that my initials aren't RR, correct? o_O**

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**Chapter 7**

**Apollo Tricks Us All**

Isn't it just peachy when you figure out your best friend's godly parent, you're still unclaimed, and that godly parent happens to be Hades? Exactly my reaction. I was disappointed, really, even though, somewhere in my mind, I was happy for Lola. Contradicting, yes. I can't explain it.

After a few moments in silence as us two walked away from the woods and started walking towards Cabin 11 to grab her things and put them inside those two cabins down, in Cabin 13, I finally decided I couldn't take it. I broke the deathly quiet.

"Do you feel… weird? At all?"

My comment seemed to take Lola by surprise. Her eyes seemed to widen, maybe with interest, maybe with hurt, I don't know. Then I realized that her eye color was now straying from her aqua, and slowly going hazel, and probably eventually some form of red. Nico's eyes were hazel with a tint of red, so I just figured.

Finally, I got my answer.

"Yes. I never expected it to be… Hades."

"I don't think anyone would actually _want_ that for themselves, Lo. I guess you're gonna have to deal with it," I said almost jokingly. She giggled the slightest, when a voice─ raspy, timid, thoughtful, yet sarcastic at the same time ─ came from behind us: "So, you're the child of _dirt_? Special."

I turned, furious. I looked Rosa VanCleaven in the eye. "Shut _up_, Rosie," I sneered, trying to do what Annabeth had done to me the other day: try to hold her gaze, freak her out if I could.

No such luck.

"What's your name?" she asked me. Stupid.

"Eve, dummy. And I think I know where this is going."

Rosa smiled. "What's the color of the sky?"

I was just about ready to kill this girl. "Yeah, I called it. One of those stupid jokes. Starts with 'What's your name?', goes to 'What's the color of the sky?' then finishes off with 'What's the opposite of down?' all leading up to 'INSERT NAME HERE blew up.' Quite mature, VanCleaven. Shut it, please," I said, folding my arms and looking away, finding myself watching a worried Lola, who was consulting an Apollo camper, probably because she was sure one of us was going to get hurt. Rosa was back-talking behind me, but I was too focused on random things: campers, clouds, etc. Again, leading me to talk about my ADHD.

I woke up from my little daze when Lola poked me harder than she ever had.

"Rosa's gone, wake up, dude!" she yelled at me. I was up with a start. "Kyle seems to be the only one who can talk some sense into Rosa. He just saved your butt, man."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?" Because I was confused.

"You had this thoughtful look on your face, and you were staring at the sky. Rosa was _about _to run you through for shoving her into the lake, but Kyle stopped her. What, momentary black-out?"

I guessed so. But that didn't really matter. I was tired, and I felt like crashing out in Hermes cabin. I actually almost fell into the mud, 'cause I was that tired, but Lola propped me up. She looked concerned. "Kyle! Get your butt over here!" she shouted, but no Kyle. Instead, a boy who looked not too much different from him came up. He had brown hair, almost black, with deep blue eyes.

"Will Solace, son of Apollo. What do you need?"

Lola started talking about how she thought I had a fever or something. This 'Will' character touched my forehead, and then I was asleep.

Next I remember I was being served what looked like lemon squares and iced tea, back in the infirmary. I had a wet cloth over my head, water beads trickling down my face slowly. My hearing was fuzzy, and this was all I could make out:

Will and Kyle were arguing about whether or not I was sick, or, when they agreed that I was, they started arguing about what it was that I had.

"─ heat stroke. Could last a while," was all I heard. It didn't sound like either of the Apollo brothers. Then I realized the man next to me. He had blonde hair, a tan, blue eyes, and he seemed somewhat dangerous.

Then I heard Kyle say, "But dad, that's not what we came up with. Our choices were…" His voice trailed off that moment.

Apollo was sitting next to me.

No pressure.

I started to extend my arm, reaching for the glass in which the 'iced tea' was in. Apollo looked at me and smiled. "Ah. I see you're awake. Well, there you go," he started to say, handing me the glass.

"Thanks. Uh, sir."

His grin widened somewhat. "Haiku time," he announced. Several groans from different places in the infirmary. I didn't know what their problems were, but I decided to listen.

"_She wakens from sleep,_

_She tries to reach for her drink,_

_How cool am I?"_

I grimaced. Worst haiku _ever_. He starts talking about me, then suddenly switches to his own godly self. The last line wasn't even five syllables.

Kyle pointed that out, and Apollo paled. "It was only four?" With a nod from Will, Apollo put on his 'grumpy face'. A sort of childish god, but I guess it shouldn't matter.

I started to drink from the glass. It tasted like… exactly what it looked like. A boring glass of iced tea. I heard from a couple others who'd been here before that it tasted like something they really loved. For Percy, it was chocolate chip brownies (or cookies, I may have forgotten). To most satyrs, it was aluminum cans. But I got iced tea. I hated iced tea. I set the glass down and reached for the lemon squares. Now _that _tasted good. What looked like lemon squares, tasted like steak to me. I was about to eat more than what I already was (which was about half-way through it), when Will screamed, "Not all of it!" It startled me. I quickly put it back. "What?" I demanded.

I didn't get an answer.

After a while of sitting there, bored out of my scalp, they freed me. I walked to Hermes cabin. Of course, Lola's things were already gone. No shock.

I left. Walking to the arena, hoping to spar with someone, I stopped dead in my tracks. Why was everyone staring at me? Then I looked up. The glowing symbol of Apollo, right there above me.

I was happy. I had been claimed by someone that I even knew. But I didn't feel any sort of connection to it. Apollo wasn't… me.

Something had to be wrong. I walked to the infirmary, see if maybe Apollo had made a mistake, but he was gone. Kyle shrugged at me. Though, he kept calling me 'sis' and saying things like, 'I knew it'd be Apollo' or 'I have a sister!' and other stupid things like that. He got to say that all day long, too, because he kept following me. And following me. And _following_ me. _Yeesh, dude, take a chill pill!_, I was screaming in my mind. He wouldn't leave me alone. He even made me sword-fight with him (time for bruises), foot-race with him (I wasn't fond of that), and even rock-wall climb with him. (Almost got scorched that activity.)

The only break I got was when I was packing my things and moving to Cabin 7, Apollo's cabin. Greg had decided that helping me so that I wouldn't 'faint because of heat stroke and/or heavy items', so I conned him into making him do it for me when he offered. Then there was lunch, and dinner. My food wasn't appetizing, and having Kyle talk and talk and _talk_ wasn't fun either. I thought girls were supposed to do that, not guys.

Apollo's children were spoiling me. Aka, giving me gifts, calling me 'sis' or 'sister', and offering help in any needed area of camp activities. I ignored them, and looked around the room. There was Lola, looking completely bored on the other side of the pavilion, with only Nico di Angelo and a couple of other people for company. While I was stuck over here, far from her, with Kyle Delnz, Will Solace, and several others I didn't know.

We did our usual 'To the gods!' thing and scraped food into the hearth, saying prayers and stuff.

_Let my _real _dad claim me soon, please_, I remembered saying. Because I had a feeling Apollo wasn't my dad at all. He was most certainly not the man from my memory.

Later, we were doing some more camp activities. I had to 'redo' the rock-wall because I had 'almost died the first time and needed to improve'. _So_ reassuring, I told them.

I couldn't do it. There were too many items to dodge, too big a possibility of being disintegrated by lava, and worst: I'm not the best with heights. This thing was about 15 ft. high (my estimate), and they wanted you to reach the top. Ridiculous.

When I couldn't take it, I whistled. I didn't know what I was doing. I jumped off, and landed on a pegasus back.

Jet.

I was relieved. I could ditch the rock-wall (aka Doomsday) and head straight for pegasus lessons. Perfect plan. We landed gracefully by the stables, and I hopped off of Jet. "Hello?" I called. A startled voice came from inside the stables, and I noticed that it was our Capture the Flag captain, Katie Gardner. I had heard that the original flying teacher had been killed in a war accident, and since then Katie took over her duties.

"Oh. Sorry, Eve. I didn't expect anyone to come by at the moment. I was just cleaning the manure from the stables, but I guess I could spare a few of my cleaning minutes for some lessons," she said sweetly, wiping her leather gloves together, and on her pants. It seemed she was the one person I now knew who didn't care about poop on their clothing.

I told her that I would leave her to her business, and that I was sorry. Before I left, she congratulated me on being 'claimed'. I thanked her, but being claimed didn't seem real. It wasn't who I thought it'd be.

As I walked through Camp, hoping to take a rest in my new cabin, I saw Kyle. I hid my face with a hand, and darted off quickly. I knew he'd harass me about being siblings again, and I couldn't risk another 4 hours of my life being wasted.

Luckily, he didn't see me, but Greg did.

"Eve!" he called, trying to catch up to me (naturally, as of course I was still running). I told him to shut up and be quiet, and then I fed him my day. He agreed that Kyle couldn't see me for the rest of the day, so we darted off to his cabin instead. Delnz wouldn't look for me there, I noted.

Cabin 9, Hephaestus', was interesting inside. There were lots of swords, and shields, and other forged items that could be used in battle. Armor littered the wall. I was looking around, marveling the sight of it all, and then I heard a sound that was Greg clearing his throat, trying to get my attention. I turned to see him sitting on a perfectly made bed, and I saw that there was a whole bunch of forgery under it. I assumed the tidiness of his covers was to distract any cabin inspectors from all of that under the bed.

He picked up his pillow, which I thought was odd at first, but then he showed me blueprints for armor he would be testing out and attempting to create. One in particular caught my attention: a music box, that could open up and become a handy jewelry-box as well. The design was intriguing. Neat, intricate patterns everywhere, and then I realized that at one point, there was a sword-clashing between two fighting men. On the side of the blueprint page, it read: _Music playing will be favorite song of friend's choice_. I realized he was asking me what music I liked, or something, and I told him that I didn't know. It seemed to let him down, but he put the plans under his pillow again and started up a conversation.

"You like to make things, huh?" I asked stupidly. Of _course_ he did, he was a son of Hephaestus. But I had nothing to say.

He didn't respond. He was looking at me with these weird eyes. I realized something:

The music box was most likely supposed to be for me.

Greg had pulled all this off, to get us alone together in a room. He was trying to be all romantic or something.

Kyle has the worst possible timing. He barged into the room, looking angry yet relieved. "There you are! I've been looking for you, Eve Benson. It's time for the campfire. You promised you'd sit with me."

I glared. "No, I didn't. You suddenly proclaimed that I would when I said nothing. I was actually going to sit with Katie Gardner," I lied. I hoped Katie wasn't saving a spot for anybody.

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**See what happens next when... I write what happens next o.o Haven't decided yet. And yes, there's a trick to everything. You'll see if Apollo lied or not... eventually :D The chapter heading is only called that because Eve doesn't feel right. Doesn't necessarily mean what it says.**

**SPOILER ALERT! People who don't like spoilers, look away!**

**Spoiler: Eve is sent on a quest to find the stolen lyre of Apollo. That's all I will say.**


	8. A Torture Like No Other

**Well, give a warm applause to GoddessofDiscordAndCookies for letting me put her into this chapter. *cough*More like *cough* nagging me *cough* to do it*cough***

**Here's chapter 8, all ready!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

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****Chapter 8**

**A Torture Like No Other**

As it came time for the campfire, and the sing-along's (most of which I thought were a bit cheesy), I was looking around eagerly to find Katie. She wasn't in her cabin, or the arena. And all the other areas that I'd seen her in before, had no Katie. Then I saw her warming up the firewood for the with a young girl, maybe 10 or 11.

"Katie!" I whispered. I couldn't risk being heard by my 'brother'.

She looked at me, and smiled. "Hey, Eve. Come here." Then she patted the seat next to her. I took it quickly, seeing as I saw Kyle coming down the hill. I was inviting people to sit down on the other side of me, and finally a brunette with a brutal looking face and harsh, green eyes sat. Katie's smile grew wider. "Eve Benson, meet my friend, Clarisse La Rue. Daughter of Ares.

I smiled at her, and she smiled at me. Some strange automatic connection, I guess. We talked a little before the campfire was fully started.

"Apollo, huh? I'm a bit biased myself, but I guess he's cool."

"I don't honestly think it's Apollo, Clarisse. He's just not me."

We would've said more, but the campfire started.

Some of us were roasting marshmallows and hotdogs, some could be seen taking off any jackets being worn, and still some were either warming up or listening contentedly. I could see Kyle on the other side of the fire, looking annoyed. A tortured looking Greg was most likely forced to sit with him. I pitied him for a moment. Off to a corner, I could see Nico di Angelo and Lola together, 'catching up' or something, like they'd been best friends for years. And there were other various campers, chatting and laughing.

Eventually, all that talking and laughing was quieted by Mr. D. "Yes, well, as always, it's our little campfire. Huzzah, and all that. Now, go on, little brats. Do your thing while I spare myself in the Big House." And with that, he was gone. Safe to say, only a weirdo here would like Mr. D. And, luckily, no one did.

We all participated in silly games and such – for instance, telephone, suggested by a Hermes gal named Taryn Cocks -, and it was a whole lot better than I'd expected.

After a little while of games and talk, it was time for the famous sing-along. Sadly, it was always led by Apollo campers. Thankfully, I wasn't the one in charge. It was Will Solace, actually. I was happy foer him, but he looked nervous. Then I pitied him just as much as I did myself when Lola had smacked me upside the head in Capture the Flag.

There were several songs having to do with gods and such, some regular-people music (which I preferred), and then there was a bit of a surprise.

A girl named Kristen, a daughter of Hecate who loved to drive people mad to the point of Asphodel, suddenly took over. She brought out an iPod, which some thought might attract monsters (it's sort of like sending up a flare: 'Oh hi! Can you turn me into bits? Thanks!'), and blasted Justin Bieber on us. "MWUAHAHAHA!" she shouted, clearly feeling victorious. Kristen turned it up more, and when anyone tried to run away, or even if you just sat there trying to bear it, you'd get tied up in celestial bronze chains.

"APHRODITES!" she called, and a huge mob of insane weirdo's whom none of us had seen before, attacked and put make-up on everyone. I caught Katie trying to hop away. She thought I was trying to stop her, but I told her, "Heck no! I was trying to follow you out of this trainwreck!"

And so we ran.

We were easily seen, though, and Kristen gave us a personal treatment: never a good thing from her. She made us fall over, had an army of Mary-Sues attack, while, on top of all that, we had been hit on the heads by some sort of Viking club. At least we wouldn't feel the pain.

But we got up quick. Sadly, when Nico threatened her with The Fields Of Punishment, Kristen didn't care. More mayhem.

Chiron didn't hear our ruckus for a while, plainly, because he came out from his room in the Big House a little late. I glanced at a very upset Percy, who looked flat out ridiculous with the make-up spread all over his face.

"My, my. What, ah, happened here?" he asked half-heartedly. I looked him over, and he was smiling. I took a look at where his gaze met. Oh my, oh my, those Stoll brothers looked like nonsense. Way better entertainment than Jackson.

Clarisse was the one to answer his question.

"It was all Kristen, sir. She blasted Beaver on us and did _this_ to us," she told, gesturing towards everybody who'd been victim of the crazy Hecate. Which was everyone.

Chiron grinned a wide grin. "My dear girl, you must stop doing this to people, honestly. But, ah, who is 'Beaver'?" Kristen said nothing, but a cookie was tossed at him from somewhere in the crowd and we all voted that it had been her. No one answered his question, either. And eventually, Chiron didn't care and must've figured it was a 'teen' thing.

That left us alone with a whack-a-doodle.

She smiled. Everyone was suddenly unchained, and free of make-up. But now it was time for scary stories, and she had voted herself first off.

"Ten years ago, in this area, there was a terrible monster. He swallowed all but a few lucky campers. And it was told that ten years later, tomorrow, he would return and eat everyone again. So hurry up, pack your things, and… WORK IT, SISTERS!" Suddenly, the creepy girls who'd smothered us in blush and perfume and gross things, were all standing on a stage that had come from nowhere, dancing and singing stupid Justin Bieber songs. It made Chris Rodriguez lose it—he said something about a rope. Annabeth was going crazy bit by bit, covering her ears. And Katie, well, she almost passed out from horror. Me? I stood there in disbelief, hoping that when I came out of this random state, everything would be over.

Kristen stood there smiling at her work of art: everyone gone dotty.

About 17 minutes passed. It was almost curfew, and everyone was still out here going nuts. A conversation between two campers, may I refer to:

"Do you hear something?"

"Yah. It's the tomato truck passing by. Why?"

"What? I hear the sound of rope. How can you not?"

"I LIKE PUPPIES!"

"Excuse me?" a worried person asked.

"Oh, I said that Percy is cheating on Annabeth." A somewhat happy expression on the face if this camper.

Of course, Percy and Annabeth both said in unison: "WHAT! No I'm not/he isn't!"

Kristen was still kicking back, enjoying things. She flicked a cookie at a dazed person from the Demeter cabin.

And I still stood there with Katie and Clarisse, sickened by the thought of it all. That was until, we saw Mr. D and some cleaning harpies chatting about 'bad campers' and how we needed to be 'done away with'. That made us all high-tail it back to the cabins. Even Kristen was running. But probably just to plan something for the next day.

I lay in my sleeping bag, which was ironically placed next to Kyle's bed bunk (gee, who could've done that?), thinking about things some more. Many things were on my mind. Why was Kristen so odd? Why did she torture us? Why was Mr. D calling us rotten all the time? Why had the wrong god claimed me? And when would I get to be someone special?

Then, I got an idea. I woke up Owen Salvatore, who lay on the bunk above my friend.

"Owen?"

An annoyed groan.

"Owen?" I asked more forcefully.

No response this time.

"OWEN!" I finally yelled. It was a whisper, but loud enough for him to hear. How I didn't wake up Kyle, I didn't know.

"6 more minutes, mom…" was all I got. And some snoring.

I gave it a rest. Slowly, but surely, I fell asleep.

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**Why did Kristen do this? Why didn't Chiron try to stop them that hard? What did Eve want to talk to Owen about? The world may never know... xP**

**Again, 3 cheers for GoddessOfDiscordAndCookies! *applause* Hip hip! *hooray!* Hip hip! *hooray!***


	9. Zeus' Daughter Makes A Visit

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

**Claimer: I own everything that isn't PJO :3 Other than GoddesOfDiscordAndCookies (aka Kristen), anyway xD**

**Enjoy! c[:**

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Chapter 9

**Zeus' Daughter Makes A Visit**

_Well, crud_, I thought as I woke the next morning. The day before hadn't gone as I'd hoped at all. We were all tortured (I believe Chris was taken to the infirmary), and Chiron barely cared. Then Mr. D blamed all of us for what happened, and it was all Kristen.

I looked around my 'cabin'. A few campers had already left, including Owen Salvatore and Will Solace. Kyle was sleeping his butt off, snoring loudly. I tossed a pillow at him.

I got up out of my uncomfortable sleeping bag and stretched, while yawning. I left the room without another word.

Everyone (other than the few sleepy campers) was having breakfast in the dining pavilion, so I quickly sprinted to it, hoping I wouldn't be late and/or scolded by Dionysus.

Luckily, I wasn't.

I sat next to Will Solace and Breena Bryans. I talked to them about how I didn't feel right about Apollo being my dad. And finally, I told them about the memory.

Will didn't answer. Breena acted like she didn't know what I was talking about. (Even though she was practically worthy of an Athenian)

We did the everyday thing- toss some food in, say a prayer, yadda yadda. You get it. So, I was praying, when I started listening in to a conversation between Annabeth & Chiron.

"─ But Chiron, someone has to get it. Definitely not as important as the lightning bolt that we got before, but it's important. Apollo's lyre."

"Annabeth, dear, I know you think this girl is an excellent choice, and in most cases I'd agree, but we have the Titan war on our hands. It's always possible that they could come back, one way or another. "

Annabeth was unhappy, quite. "But—"

"'But' nothing, dear. I apologize."

With that, she walked off grumpily.

I sat back down to where I was sitting before. Next to my table was Annabeth's, so I could listen to her complaining to her siblings.

Breakfast was over soon, and I started off to Greek lessons. Which was quite difficult. One, Kristen was acting as my tutor today because my normal one, Isabelle Slate, was in her cabin, sick with a mild fever. Which reminded me of the heat stroke they told me I had, and suddenly I was getting really warm inside my shirt. Thank Zeus (I'd probably get blasted to bits for saying that) I had an undershirt beneath it, so I just tore my over-shirt off. I looked like I had just been in the gym, one, because I was sweaty, and two, that's one of the only occasions I can think of where you'd wear an undershirt only.

I missed Isabelle, badly. Kristen kept telling me incorrect things about Greek language (which I'd expected), and she kept treating me badly. Like… threatening 'Pea-brain' on me if I didn't pronounce something right. Or yelling at me that she'd make sure I'd get a special appearance on The Torture Channel that aired on Hephaestus TV Live, if I didn't get it correctly. And then my mind started wandering, and all I heard last out of her was that she'd place me on the Torture Bed for life, and then she left for some other activity.

Isabelle, however, was always kind and patient with me, even if her dad was the minor god of dreams, Morpheus, who'd joined Kronos' cause. Though, I'll admit, something from her father had to have rubbed off on her, because whenever she was around, I got a little drowsy.

My mind went farther and farther, 'till the point that I hadn't even realized I was asleep on the Big House porch. How I woke up? Lola's poking, naturally. She told me that it was time for dinner, and I'd already missed 3 activities. (Archery, foot-racing, and javelin tossing.)

Lola, luckily very strong, had to carry me to the pavilion, 'cause I was too pooped to move anywhere. I ate my food in silence, mixing things around with a spoon. I didn't eat that night, partially because I was tired, and partially because I was listening in on another conversation:

"Chiron, please! This has to be done with. Apollo is getting angry."

"I understand your concern, Annabeth, but this is risky at the current time. Remember the prophecy, darling. _Seven half-bloods shall answer the call; To storm or fire, the world must fall; An oath to keep with a final breath; And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death._ We mustn't risk losing any campers with that," the centaur was saying, a worried tone in his voice, with a shade of exasperation.

"I beg to differ," came a loud voice from the entrance of the pavilion. I turned to see a girl, 15 years of age by the looks of her, with pure black hair along with some pink and blue streaks here and there. Her shirt read, 'Death to Barbie', and it had a picture of a plastic Barbie doll with an arrow through it's head. The girl wore a white ski jacket, which I thought was very weird with this hot weather, and black, leathery boots. Her pants were ripped jeans, basically, and they had a couple marker stains.

Everyone gasped.

"Thalia!" cried Annabeth, who ran to her apparent friend. Percy, Nico, Travis, Connor, and a few others got up to meet her.

The 'Thalia' character smiled at Annabeth, and embraced her into a hug. She smirked at Percy, and shook his hand awkwardly. The others all smiled brightly at her, but she only returned them with a forced look of happiness.

As she walked up to Chiron, she passed me. She seemed to glow, the slightest.

"Chiron, sir, Artemis and her Hunters have a different view of things. Apollo is always complaining about the lyre, and you know Lady Artemis can't take that. Please, sir, you must send a quest to a potential camper. Well, one camper in particular, really…"

Everyone listened intently, including myself. This was quite interesting.

Chiron's face told that he was still deciding, wavering. Holding things out, so that no one could get hurt by chance. "Ms. Grace-," he started, when Thalia glared. "Er, Thalia, sorry. My dear child, we cannot risk any campers—"

Again came Thalia's interruption. "_Unless_ we have one camper particularly leading the quest, sir. A cousin of mine, I'd say." Then she looked at Lola. "Get up, daughter of Hades," she said. Timidly, my friend rose. "The name's Thalia Grace. Zeus' kid. Now, we need you to lead a quest for everyone. Apollo won't be happy if he doesn't get his lyre back soon. And right now, you're the youngest child of the Big Three: important."

Lola's face went pale, which made her look like a piece of paper, considering her skin was already almost the shade of a lamb's wool.

Thalia waited impatiently. "Well? Are you going to accept or not? The gods don't wait forever."

She glanced around the room. "Uh, y-yes. Er, ma'am," she said, seemingly frightened. Which, this time, _everyone_ found very strange. This girl was Hades' daughter.

Next to me, Kyle raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with her?" he asked me. I shrugged, and he started wolfing down some leftover barbeque from off of his plate.

"Well, it's settled then. Artemis and my fellow Hunters won't have to complain about Apollo's complaints once this is all over."

And with that, Thalia was gone. Not without giving Annabeth another hug, but she left nonetheless.

"Well," Chiron started, "we have a quest to start tomorrow."

That rose everyone's spirits. Not.

All the rest of that day, people were freaking out. I was on the rock wall, and some camper below me was screaming, "_WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"_

Lola didn't talk to me the rest of the day, until later when her quest partners would be chosen.

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**Meh. Short chapter. But no matter, I suppose.**


	10. The Quest Begins At Burger King

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Burger King, or the bikes.**

**Enjoy!**

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Chapter 10

**The Quest Begins At Burger King**

Lola and I walked to the Big House, in silence most of the way. We agreed that we would co-lead the quest, so that neither one of us felt left out or more special.

When we got there, Chiron had compacted himself into his magical wheelchair, so he wasn't in centaur form. A fuzzy, somewhat frayed blanket lay across his lap, keeping him warm (which, _again_, was a strange summer fashion statement).

"Ah. Lola, Ms. Ruman, if you will, I see you've already chosen one of your partners. You must choose one more," Chiron said thoughtfully.

"Well, er, we decided to sort of co-captain. Does that mean one more, still? Or two more?" I asked. I wasn't too sure if our plan (even though we didn't really have one) would work.

Chiron looked me over. It seemed to him that I looked like I could be tricked onto the bad side or something. If he thought that, he was totally wrong. I mean, he looked at me with these squinting eyes, as if he were trying to see into my heart or something.

Whatever it was that he thought was 'wrong' with me, he must've gotten over it.

"Well, three is my sacred number. The Big Three, Cerberus with his three heads, three campers. That's how it works, always. But I suppose… oh, no. I couldn't."

Mr. D came from practically nowhere. "Oh, let them go. More brats gone, the merrier." Lightning threatened to break through our little bubble of safety. "Oh, fine! " Dionysus shouted at it. But in a whisper tone to Chiron, he said, "But you should still let 4 campers altogether go." A reassuring grin, apparently, was what Mr. D thought was needed to persuade the old centaur.

Gods must never be wrong, I guessed. Chiron decided that it would be fair enough to allow one more camper on a quest like retrieving Apollo's (at which point I'd been convinced that he was my dad) guessed-to-be-stolen lyre.

It was safe to say that Lola was very happy. She wasn't poking the crap out of me, and her face didn't look at all worried or pained (which it sometimes did).

"Well, one is obvious: Kyle Delnz," Lola insisted. I wasn't too sure that he was such a safe choice, but he was coming along anyway.

Lola wasn't sure who to pick next. I was about to whisper Katie Gardner's name in her ear, when I thought differently. I told her who I wanted to come along. She looked at me sort of funny, but she announced that Greg Willins would be coming with us.

Once it was told to everyone that Greg and Kyle would be coming with us, there were a few sad groans, a couple sighs of relief, and other things I couldn't make out.

"Well, Lola, time to go get your death sentences- I mean, uh, prophecy?" I was gonna kill Mr. D soon. But Lola did as told. She walked up the Big House steps, and went to find out her death sen- oh, I'm as bad as Dionysus. _Prophecy_.

After a few minutes of waiting for her to come back, a crazed looking Lola came down the steps.

"I-I—"

"What was the prophecy?" Kyle and Chiron asked in unison. "JINX!" Kyle shouted. Chiron looked greatly confused, but he paid attention to Lola.

"Come on, now, darling, what was the prophecy?"

Silence.

"I… I…"

More waiting.

"_Demigods to find the stolen,_

_Be saved by an immortal, a heart will be swollen,_

_Travel to a land to mortals unknown,_

_As all wraps up, a truth be bestown."_

Find the stolen: easy. Fetch Apollo's lyre.

Saved by an immortal? Awkward… and what about the 'heart shall be swollen' thing? Was that supposed to make sense?

A land that regular people (aka LUCKY people) don't know of? Olympus, probably.

Truth be bestown, heh? If the truth is so dang important that it's a part of a quest prophecy, why does it have to happen at the END!

While that line infuriated me, it also gave me a stirring feeling inside. Maybe it meant… nah. Too simple. I'd heard about campers' sob stories and terribly challenging quests before. It couldn't happen just like, BOOM!

By the time I had ideas forming in my mind, Chiron said that we better get going.

We were about to be escorted by Chiron to the car that the camp's security guard, Argus, was driving, when someone touched my shoulder.

I turned to see a sympathetic Rosa standing before me, hand on my shoulder and a concerned expression being worn.

"I've never had a quest, but I know what it feels like. Don't die, 'kay?"

I nodded awkwardly, and followed the friends who were waiting for me. Isabelle Slate was right by the camp's border, waving goodbye and everything. Her other hand was being occupied, petting the dragon who had itself curled around Thalia's Pine. I saw Katie from the crowd, yelling 'goodbye', 'we'll miss you', 'don't die', and other various things that, under normal circumstances, were obvious.

As we piled into the car, Lola called, "SHOTGUN!" and ran to the front seat next to Argus. Meanwhile, while Lola was happy up front, Kyle and Greg and I were shuffled into the back, squashed into each other. I was on the edge, Greg was in the middle, and Kyle was on the other side of him. I was happy that I wasn't next to my brother, but I also didn't like being squeezed to death. Especially when I saw grubby handprints on the window right next to my face.

When I almost couldn't breathe anymore, being squished like so, the ambrosia in Greg's Ziploc baggie looked pretty darned good. But I didn't say anything about it- I knew eating it when it was unnecessary was going to cause havoc of some form.

"Argus?"

Our chauffer looked at Kyle, who'd asked the question, but didn't say anything. It was a popular rumor 'round camp that he didn't talk because he supposedly had eyeballs on his tongue- like everywhere else on his body. Eyes in every single spot imaginable. Er, hopefully not _everywhere_ everywhere, but you get my point.

Kyle murmured something about paying attention less and talking more, then looked at Lola. "What time is it?"

Lola looked at her invisi-watch. "Uh, I-don't-know-o'clock. Ask someone with a freakin' watch, man."

He looked hopefully at Greg.

A groan from Greg. He pressed something invisible on his arm, which I guessed was a button from _somewhere_, and a watch appeared on his wrist. I guess he must have built that, but I questioned how he got an invisibility effect.

"4:38. Make your black hole of a stomach grow up and learn to _wait_," Greg said, annoyed.

I sniggered.

Kyle glared at me. I glared back. It somehow transformed into a staring contest that I so-awesomely won, after a couple of minutes.

We waited, and waited, did some more waiting, and waited. Only a couple of things passed the time.

Finally, after about 3 hours of nearly completely sheer silence, we were dropped off at Waterbury, New York.

Home.

I could feel Symphony even though I wasn't there. It was so close…

No. I was on a quest. A quest with angry gods and monsters. We couldn't just take a pit stop at school (even though I was sure it could only be several streets away). I had to focus.

We looked around. After 11 minutes of wandering, we stopped at a local Burger King for lunch. We were all clearly starving, and only Kyle had money on him (a couple of wadded up dollar bills, a few quarters, a dime, several pennies), but it wasn't enough for food.

Greg and I sat at a small table, and Kyle and Lola sat at a table of the same size at the other end of the place.

I looked up at the waitress, told her we had no money enough to pay but that we were absolutely starving.

Then I took something in.

A waitress. At a _Burger King_? That couldn't be right.

She glared at me once I'd said that the money was all on Kyle, and even then it was only $2.87.

"No money, no food, godling."

Excuse me? Godling? Either she could see through the Mist, she was a monster, or we had a weirdo freak case on our hands.

Greg snapped his fingers crisply.

"Oh, but ma'am, we really need it. Please." I was shocked at how good Greg was with dealing things.

"Fine, but next time you pay."

She glared, then turned into exactly what I'd seen 7 years ago: an _empousa_. An _empousa_ in Burger King.

"You can't hide yourselves so easily, Benson," she snarled.

"WOAH, WOAH, WAIT! Mrs. Dailey! My old English teacher!"

It grinned a crooked grin. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner, Eve. We watch all of you… sometimes we take a 'liking' for our little demigods."

"I'M STILL CONFUSED HERE!"

That came completely out of nowhere, but hey, blame the ADHD.

Kyle brought out his sword from a long, thin pocket in his pants that I hadn't noticed before. He jumped in front of me, and fought with my old teacher for a while. Awkward.

Mrs. Dailey—erm, the _empousa_ was sadly winning. She disarmed Kyle, which I wasn't happy about.

I took out my sword, which had compacted into a dagger for stashing in a pocket or something, and it, by itself, turned into full-out sword mode. I slashed at the monster with it, which Mrs. Dailey didn't seem too pleased about. I'd cut her arm, causing her to disintegrate slowly. But I guess she was one of the monsters that you _really_ couldn't kill, because once she was in a pile of ash one second, and it'd disappeared. The next second, she was at the door, mad.

She was about to attack me, most likely put an end to my supposed misery, when Lola defended me. She swathed a switchblade from her pocket and started going after her, looking so fierce that it was scary.

It didn't quite harm the _empousa_ the way we'd all wanted it to. Lola's switchblade (that had mysteriously been in her pocket… not creepy or anything) barely touched her golden, automaton leg.

I took up my weapon. I hacked at the _empousa_, and in return her fiery hair nearly burnt my ear to a crisp.

Kyle eventually got up, sword at his side. Even though he and Lola were trying furiously (while Greg watched in horror from behind and I sort of hid myself behind Lola… smooth, Eve, smooth.), it wasn't any of us who'd killed her.

It was a bow and arrow from behind the kitchen counter.

A figure came up, and Thalia could be seen.

As Mrs. Dailey disintegrated into ash (and didn't come back this time), Thalia jumped on the counter then slid off.

"Couldn't exactly let you get killed, now could I?" Thalia said, looking proud of her dust pile that she'd made out of a monster.

Lola glared. "We didn't need your—"

"Thanks," I covered up quickly.

She smiled. "Well, you being my… niece, I guess, I couldn't sit back and watch the show. " Thinking of the fact that I was her niece, yet she was seemingly only a year older than me, was disturbing. I shook it out of my mind and focused. I looked around the room, heart racing. We'd just faced an evil monster, how could it not be running around in my body? I glanced at Thalia's 'Death to Barbie' tee from the corner of my eye. It looked like 'etaDh to ibaBre'.

ADHD took over. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" I shouted suddenly. It was true; I was in suspense, and we'd barely started our stupid quest. Then Thalia suddenly pops up from nowhere and saves the day. I was starting to see Lola's point: we were handling things and suddenly 'auntie' comes and saves everyone.

I yelled more.

I was starting to feel some sort of pain, and not just a gas bubble in my stomach. True, aching pain. The kind Percy had described to me one day: the power of Kronos. He was overtaking me as some people around us spoke. Thalia had truly killed his minion. Why wasn't she in pain? Maybe it was because she was a Hunter. But I intended to find out.

After several minutes of feeling like I was about to burn up and die, the pain subsided.

I looked at my arm, that was aching badly still. It had a cut, which was bleeding. My face went neutral. I wailed over that?

But then I saw everyone with their mouths open, staring at my leg. I took a look. A pool of poison oozed out of a gash in my knee, and I knew that Kronos wouldn't stop at anything to get us.

Greg helped me bandage it up, and it stung like mad. I questioned why Kyle, the son of Apollo, wasn't the one helping. But I drank some nectar which Thalia had taken out of Greg's bag, and a small bite of an ambrosia square.

We went outside, and noted that we were carless. No form of transportation.

Thalia had been called back by Artemis, and left with haste. So her helping us get around was no longer an option.

Then Lola pointed to a bike rack, in which some bicycles were being held. Kyle and Greg snagged a bike that could fit two people, while Lola and I were forced to rob one-person bikes.

I don't know what the humans saw that dau, but it couldn't have been good.

Then we left.

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**YAH! ZE QUEST BEGIIINSSS! 8DDD**


	11. The Snake Goes Rats

**OH MY APOLLO. I FREAKIN' MET RICK RIORDAN ON THE 22nd! WOOOOT! HE TOUCHED MY BOOK, SIGNED MY BOOK, SAID MY NAME, TOOK MY FOLDER OF THE FIRST 1O CHAPPIES OF THIS STORY RIGHT HERE (Not including this chapter), I GOT A SWEET LOST HERO PIN, _AND_ I MADE A PJO OBSESSED FRIEND ALL IN ONE JAM-PACKED DAY!** **Is that not awesome or what? :3**

**Anywho, sorry about my excited venting, and on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own PJO**

**Claimer: I own my characters :3 But I don't own Kristen o_o (If you don't know who Kristen is, that's GoddessOfDiscordAndCookies)**

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****Chapter 11**

**The Snake Goes Rats**

As we rode through multiple alleyways, I started thinking: what was going on at the camp? I figured Kristen had to be doing something. Percy would most likely be attempting to shoot his deadly arrows. Nico would be lonely without his sister. And Annabeth would be studying away for absolutely no humane reason.

I heard people talking in the background, people familiar. But I was too caught up in thinking about camp to realize that it was just my friends talking. And when I noticed that, I jolted back to reality.

"So… I guess we should start searching?" Kyle suggested. I had _no_ idea what he was talking about. But then again, I had been in my own world, and, I mean, come on. This was Kyle we're talking about.

Lola nodded at him. Then she turned her head to me and said, "What do you think of that huge corner over there? Plenty of space, no one's over there anyways. It's perfect, huh Eve?" I was completely out of their conversation, and I decided to just go with the flow and stay out of it. So I went into auto-pilot and said, "Yeah. Whatever." My friends didn't even seem to notice that I wasn't at all paying attention, which made me snicker on the inside.

Or at least, I thought it was only on the inside. "I heard a snicker back there," she said grimly. Of course the word 'snicker' made Kyle enthusiastic. "Eh? I heard Snickers. I LOVE those!"

Everyone but Kyle chortled.

Lola looked ahead. We had a while to go 'till we got to the 'perfect place' that she'd mentioned.

I randomly realized that I didn't even know the date. I asked Greg if I could look at his watch, because sometimes they say the day. But what I saw was confusing: military time. Some meaningless numbers off to the side. And absolutely no date. I rolled my eyes and continued pedaling, even though I was getting even farther behind my friends all the time.

After a while of zoning out, we finally got to the spot that Lola had been talking about. I didn't get why she liked it so much, but I guessed it must've been better than nothing. I didn't argue, and neither did the boys.

It was basically a large outcropping of solid dirt. I would've rather slept inside of this little cave thing we found, with a small entrance and huge inside, but Lola insisted that we kept to the outcropping instead. Well, Kyle and Greg agreed with me at first, but Lola threatened her 'mad poking skills' on them and they hesitated. Then it was three versus one. I decided sleeping outside in the heat with my friends was a whole lot better than sitting alone in a cold and dark cave.

I lugged off Greg's backpack, which contained the things we needed for the quest, and pulled out two large sleeping bags. Kyle helped me lay them out, while Lola seemed proud of herself for choosing this spot in which to camp out for the night.

We were going to sleep in pairs: Me & Lola, Kyle & Greg. But there was an argument between the four of us, and in the end, I was with Greg and Lola got stuck with Kyle. I honestly don't know how we got those results, and I'm not about to question a daughter of Hades now.

I was uncomfortable. I'd slept with Lola plenty of times, considering we'd shared a dorm back at Symphony. But even attempting to siesta next to a dude…? That was dang awkward. But I forced myself to man up and live with it.

"Erm, can you move over a bit Greg? You're a space hog," I said. It was true; I was nearly shoved off the sleeping bag. How that was possible? I don't know.

I turned over so that I faced the sky. I wondered if any of the gods were there, watching. I knew inside that they had to have been too busy to bother watching us, but one could hope, couldn't they?

I was starting to nod off to a nice snooze, getting used to having to sleep next to the space hog, but I was oh-so-rudely awakened by a 'friend'.

"—yes, I'm aware that she's been trapped by Polyphemus and almost got eaten by carnivorous sheep. But she—oh, I've got another call, goodbye," the man in front of us said. But he hung up and never actually got another call.

_Nice save, Lord Hermes_, a male voice said. Yet strangely, I wasn't exactly hearing it. I heard the snake-like voice in my head.

_Quiet, George, you remember why we're here_, said a female voice. I didn't know where they were coming from, but I didn't dare look at Hermes.

"Martha has a point. We came here for a good reason," he whispered.

Martha hissed with delight.

I finally decided to look. Hermes was built like a surfer, with blonde hair that had mixtures of salt-and-pepper coloring. George and Martha seemed to be nowhere, until I realized the snakes on Hermes' phone had to have been them. That explained those snake-like voices, don't you think?

When Hermes decided it was a good idea to come and 'wake me up', I went karate-chop on him. I nearly hit the god of travelers and thieves in the face with my foot. Only after I did it did I realize how stupid that was. I remembered back at camp, how I didn't want to mess with Dionysus. I _really_ shouldn't have wanted to mess with Hermes. But I did it anyways.

Hermes was taken by surprise. He stumbled backward a little, but at least he regained his balance, right?

"Whoa. It's okay, Eve," he told me calmly. I wasn't sure I believed him. "I—How do you know my name?" I questioned. I sure hoped he didn't intend on learning my birthday, too.

Hermes laughed. "The gods have to take things to mind. So, yes, we actually bother learning the names of other gods' kids, believe it or not," he said.

I smirked.

By that time, my friends had woken up to see Hermes talking to me. Kyle was confused, Greg was in awe, while still Lola was still a bit in dream-world, running around and trying to kill someone with a sword that wasn't actually in her hands. When she realized that the sword wasn't there (it was probably there in her dream, though), her face was a mixture of embarrassed and upset (and I guessed that was because she didn't kill anyone). Then she said, "Aw, come on! I was just about to knock a manticore to the head with a hammer! RATS!"

_Rats are delicious_, George mused.

I looked at him awkwardly. "Umm… okay," I said.

"_Anyways_, before we got interrupted by sword-girl and my rat-crazed snake, I was going to say that I came by order of Apollo. He said that he had two kids on the quest and only I could come and deliver. I figured, why not?" Hermes explained.

I eyed at him. Kyle looked pleased as if he'd brought Hermes to this spot. Lola was confused. And Greg… I think he was either in awe or hiding disgust with a look of awe. I didn't know, people's faces could be deceiving.

"Well? How are you going to help?" Lola demanded after a minute.

"Oh, right. Well, Apollo gave me a map of places you need to go. He never said where he got it, but at least he got it. Here."

He handed Lola the map. She opened it and gasped. I look at it, and saw a dozen locations. But only three of them were specifically marked. They were in Ancient Greek, so I couldn't read it well. The first one had to be dangerous, because it had two swords clashing, as a symbol. The next one was stamped on, clearly, and it was a picture of perfume. I did not understand that one at all, but I went with it. The last one was Olympus. The map was a tad confusing, but I didn't argue.

I looked at Hermes. "Why did Apollo tell you to help? Why does it matter if he has two kids here? What happened to the direct interference issue?"

"Whoa, too many questions at a time. But, I will say, that Apollo doesn't care at the moment. He wants his kids safe and his lyre back," Hermes replied.

I groaned. Why couldn't _he_ just get his _own_ lyre?

_And the fact that he has this plan-,_ George started, until Hermes cut him off. "Quiet, George!"

_Yeah, George is just being a kiss-up. Likes to know everything_, Martha said in my head.

"Er, Hermes, sir, this looks dangerous," I said, pointing to the swords. Hermes paled. "Oh, that's nothing. Minor setback. And hey, you didn't get placed there by me. Blame my older brother's prophecies." He said 'prophecies' in what almost seemed like disgust.

"Say what now?" Kyle said in a freaked-out tone. I glanced at him, and he had been eating some crackers from the backpack. But when Hermes said that he dropped his half-eaten cracker.

_I have a camper on line 5,_ Martha told Hermes. _Something about… oh, nevermind. Only Kristen trying to sell rats and make George go crazy._

_Rats? WHERE!_

"Hush it, anaconda," I said coldly. I had nothing else to say.

Hermes narrowed his eyebrows. Then broke into a grin. "Well, I ought to be going back to my duties. Good luck." And with that, we had to shield our eyes and look away. After a few seconds, Hermes was gone and we were left with a map that lead to a setback (not minor, I guessed) in a dark alleyway at night time.

I was mad.

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**Yah, not my longest chapter, but I'll make up for it in the next.**

**Yes, Kristen really did ask me to tell George she'd bring him a rat. So, I decided to make a joke about that. And the Lola-hitting-a-manticore-on-the-head-with-a-hammer thing, Kristen told me she'd knock me in the head with a hammer if I didn't update my story soon. O_o Yes, because that's really gonna get me motivated. xD**

**I really enjoyed doing George and Martha. They're really funny.**

**And for questioners, I _do_ know where this story is going. But I am being quite vague about it. The swords isn't something good. The perfume is... important to the story plot. I'll say only that. And Olympus is clearly Olympus. xP Plenty of other ideas in store. Expect a sequel and a threquel someday. My planning goes that far in advance and I can't wait.**

**R&R accepted, flamers will be ignored unless they hurt me to the core, where they will get an either really upset PM from me or a really mad PM from me :3 Thought you should know.**


	12. My Dream Teaches Me A Lesson

**Told you I'd make a longer chapter this time :P My third longest so far, for the record book. Oh, and by the way, I've noticed recently how my story plot contradicts largely with The Lost Hero. So, let's just make this an alternate universe, okay? :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

**Claimer: I own everything else :D**

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****Chapter 12**

**My Dream Teaches Me A Lesson**

I looked to Greg. "HOW, COULD _THIS_ HAPPEN?" I snapped indignantly. I had no idea why I was taking my anger out on my friend, but it seemed to frighten him. He stepped back. "Whoa, Eve, calm down. What did he do?" said Lola, in a very serene and calm tone of voice, that of which I was unused to. I glared daggers at her, and she backed up.

Kyle stood in the background, now undisturbed and continuing with his crackers. I didn't think Ritz were that worth it, but Kyle's mind clearly was not in mine.

Lola looked like she would draw her sword any minute. I put my hand in my pocket and grabbed hold of the handle. The word 'pain' engraved in the side certainly applied right now. It felt like hot coals on a fire. I let go of it for a second. I counted in my head. _1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10… wait, I skipped 6._ I didn't know how that was supposed to get control of anger, but I'd heard it from my teachers enough times to at least remember it and try it out. Luckily, it worked. My fears and regrets and anger subsided. I touched the grip of the sword again, and it wasn't searing hot as before.

I was ready to let it go, but apparently Lola didn't think I was. She drew her sword, and I saw something weird. It looked as if it were made of black obsidian, though that wasn't possible. I looked at her, a confused expression drawn on my face.

"Stygian iron. Nico told me it was a gift from dad," she told me. I was still uncomfortable about the whole 'Hades' thing. I regarded her calmly, but she thought that I wasn't. I guessed my face showed different than what I felt inside, because she brought up her sword. I took out my dagger, and it un-compacted back to a sword.

"Guys, stop, okay? No duels. We're friends here, and we got to find Apollo's lyre. Got it?"

Neither of us listened to Greg's reasoning.

Lola's now-hazel eyes looked like they were burning with flames and showers of debris and moments of destruction. I wasn't sure what mine looked like, and I doubt it looked like _that_. I looked at her. "Lola, stop. Okay, Greg does have a point."

She didn't care, if that wasn't obvious enough. My friend's sword was at my neck in seconds. I didn't think I'd ever see a black that dark and filled with horror. I heard a gasp in the background, which could've been Kyle if it wasn't coming from Greg's direction.

I swung my sword and aimed at Lola. It started out as a little test-run sort of thing. But then she slashed at my hand and it was go time. I tried to deflect her moves. She whooped my butt. I tried to get at her. She deflected and whooped my butt again. I was starting to miss her poking fits even more, every time she hacked at me.

It was doing semi-good until she hit me in the thigh, and I went falling to the ground.

My heart throbbed with longing for Half-Blood Hill. I didn't want this much pain. Lola wore a triumphant look on her face, and tried to high-five Kyle. He refused, to my relief.

Instead, Kyle, being a good little medic, came to my aid and tried to get me to drink nectar. But I hated iced tea and I didn't want to look like a wimp, so I told him simply, "No." I wasn't going to let Lola get her satisfaction. I got up slowly, my hair in a rat's nest and my body marred. _Just great_, I thought. _I look like I've been put in a boat propeller and somehow lived. Lovely._

I took out my sword, though in truth, I really did not want to fight. I felt too weak.

That was until Lola tried to cut my arm off.

Who knew it was so simple to have war? I felt a surge of strength, and suddenly I was beating my friend in this battle. She didn't look nearly as bad as I did, and I was sure Aphrodite would kill me if she saw what I looked like, but at least I'd managed to get a taste of revenge. Kyle and Greg gasped from behind.

"The blessing of—," Greg started, but Kyle interrupted. "THAT WAS SO COOL! How did you get that red glow around you? Oh, who cares, that was extreme!"

I gave him a sideways, awkward glance. Red light?

Lola glared at me eerily. Her eyes were almost black, and they seemed a bit misty and clouded. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was a daughter of Athena. Her blonde hair and black-gray eyes totally made her look qualified.

"We're even. Don't give me that look," I warned. I didn't know if it would happen again, but if I needed it, I sure hoped it would.

She never responded, but since children of Hades didn't particularly socialize, it wasn't unsuspected.

No one spoke afterwards. I snagged my sleeping bag and hid in the small cave, even though I barely fit into the narrow entrance. I had to pull my way in to even attempt it. When I was inside the cave, I took in my surroundings. It was a huge place, and there was a small hole in the ceiling that only a bat could get through, or maybe a guinea pig. I looked to the sides. There was a large space around me. Some rocks were chipping off. I got a large one and stuffed it in the hole that led to the exit/entrance. I would remove it in the morning, and my friend would never get to me and disturb me.

I fell asleep peacefully.

I had a dream that night, and only fifteen letters could describe it:

Out-of-the-ordinary.

Rosa van Cleaven was inside of a house, at the kitchen sink trying to peel an orange, with a gloomy look on her face. That was weird enough. "Dad, why didn't you tell me? If you'd just said I was the child of a goddess, a demigod, I would've been okay with it. You shouldn't have waited for that _dracaenae_ attack to tell me. "

A tall, thin looking man came walking down white-painted wooden stairs. His hair was the color of an old autumn leaf, and he wore glasses that were snow white. His eyes were the color of chestnuts. Not that of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Mr. Christmas Fanatic. Just plain old chestnuts.

"I… dear, I couldn't. Your mom didn't want me to. And you know what? You're thirteen. The time that the gods are supposed to claim their kids. Go to Camp Half-Blood, and mum will claim you."

Rosa gaped at him. "There's more than just mom? And by the way, _claim_? You make it sound like demigods are toys, dad."

Her dad bit at his lower lip. "Oh… it's really time I give Argus a call…," he said slowly. I pitied him.

"Argus? Camp Half-Blood? Dad, what's going—"Rosa didn't finish. A misty hand crumbled through the ceiling, causing my enemy to shout for help, and grabbed her dad.

A raspy voice said, "George van Cleaven. What a prize." With that being said, George was taken away against his will.

Rosa cried. I started to feel like I should comfort her when I got back to camp. I mean, first her dad is taken. Then Simon gets killed. How could she win?

Then I thought. Rosa had told me, before I left, _I've never been on a quest, but I know what it feels like. Don't die, 'kay?_

I took that to heart. She really had known what it must've felt like. She had it worse than me. That had to have been why she was so mean to people. Maybe Kyle was the only one who'd really cared, so she had sympathy for him. Only him. She listened to him. I knew that after all this, she couldn't have possibly been over Simon. She loved him, but acted like she liked Kyle. To hide.

Then my dream switched, like they always did.

Rosa was running with Simon, and it was basically a rerun of what I'd first seen of the couple. Cyclops wins against Simon and kills him. Rosa mourns and kills the monster. How she ever got to Camp Half-Blood alone, I had not an idea in my head. I'd never seen it before.

I'd been wrong before and I was now.

My dream was elongated since last time. I saw visions of Rosa running, slashing with her sword everything that got in her way. Then she collapsed. Guess what? Kyle, goofy and playful Kyle, came running and carried her up Half-Blood Hill. He placed her in the infirmary and fixed her up himself. I couldn't actually hear their conversation, due to the fact that this was just Rosa's memories and dialogue wasn't necessary, but Rosa seemed to be talking about how stupid she'd been. I was reading lips. Kyle asked what had happened. My nemesis' eyes widened, and she began to cry. Kyle took it back and left her alone, and that's what she'd asked for.

She pulled out a picture of her dad that she'd rescued. Rosa hugged it tightly. She pulled out two other pictures: one of her and her dad standing in front of a waterfall, smiling and waving. The other was one of Simon holding a math textbook, but it looked almost dorky because Rosa's thumb was half an inch into the picture.

Rosa was crying now.

The dream faded and faded in to another dream, of Rosa being claimed. The symbol of the love goddess was above her head, right in the middle of the archery range. Embarrassing, talk about. I couldn't make out Aphrodite's marking, but the same spear that Rosa had almost killed me with suddenly appeared in her hands. I didn't know how you suddenly got a weapon out of nowhere, but POOF! Rosa got one.

I woke up under a pile of rocks, Greg removing them with haste.

"EVE!"

Lola's voice, for sure. It came from the other side of the cave. I looked in between two boulders, and saw Kyle trying to squeeze through. Why he didn't let Lola go in first or why she wasn't fighting with him about it, I wasn't sure. But Kyle couldn't fit through and that was enough information my brain could process.

"What the…? How the Underworld did this happen?" I demanded. I was cursing at Lola's dad and I didn't care. _You should_, a sane part of my brain nagged. But then again, this was life or death. My used-to-be friend, Sanity, had no right to cross his cousin Danger's properties.

"Hades knew you fought with Lola. It's extremely dark in here: his territory. I guess he didn't like that," Greg said matter-of-factly. That made me want to put Hades in hell… but then again, wasn't he already there?

After a few minutes of struggle, crisis a verdict. But now we had to get Kyle un-stuck. I decided to simply stay out of that.

I watched Lola and Greg try to push and pull hopelessly, and it was hysterical. But I didn't say a word of that, so they didn't know how silly they looked trying to shove a 14 year old boy out of solid rock.

It was getting stuffy inside the cave. I had to rip my sleeve off, and also my pant cuffs. I must've looked like a dork in there, but who was there to see? Greg and Kyle. And even then, Kyle was half-way in and couldn't exactly look up too well. That ruled him out. Only Greg would see it. But did that make me uncomfortable? You bet.

I laid down in a corner, and sighed an exasperated sigh. I looked to see a light mist in the far corner, and pick-pocketed Greg by taking a drachma. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering." Then I tossed up the coin, and said, "Show me Percy Jackson, Camp Half-Blood, Long Island, New York."

I got a blurry image of Percy and Annabeth kissing in Greek battle armor.

"Uh…"

Percy got a horrified look in his eyes, and nearly disconnected the Iris Message with his sword. "Dude, it's okay! It's just an IM. I didn't think I'd find you doing—"

"That. Was. NOTHING," Annabeth said in a scared yet angry tone of voice. Then she ran off, probably to get her mind off of what just happened by fighting in the arena or pretend like she hadn't been proving what some campers called 'Percabeth'. Knowing Annabeth, she'd do both.

"I'm sorry!" I called, but I knew she wouldn't hear me.

Percy looked almost annoyed. "What is it?" he asked. Then he noted my surroundings. "Um, where are you?"

I rolled my eyes. "No time to explain. IMs go away quickly. Anyhow, Greg, Kyle, Lola and I are stuck inside of a cave and we can't get out!"

"Well, I don't know how to fix that. But I've heard the prophecy and I'm afraid to think of where that leads. Just _don't_ leave Kyle and Greg alone when you get to—"

"SEAWEED BRAIN!"

"Sorry, Eve. Annabeth calls," he said. Then he dissolved the Iris Message before I even got to say 'wait'.

And that's how we got stuck in a stuffy, dark cave with a broad-hipped moron blocking the entrance, with no way out.

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**Hehe! Don't worry, I'll write again as soon as I can. I won't leave them in a cave to die and rot, you can count on that ;)**


	13. Lola Attempts RockWall Climbing

**Sadly, this is not one of my longest D: But at least I made it, so that they don't die and rot in that cave ^^**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO**

**Claimer: Everything else? MINE!**

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****Chapter 13**

**Lola Attempts Rock-Wall Climbing**

To pass the time, Lola decided to start singing from the other side of the cave.

"If you've had a bad day…," she started. I guess she was too tired or lazy to finish. I didn't know much of the song, but I continued: "Sing a sad song...," I sang. Well, not really 'sang'. More like humming in an annoyed and exasperated tone.

I didn't finish my 'line' either. I was so tired and bummed out, I couldn't even do that. And apparently, Kyle wanted to join in. "Do doo-doo do doo, da do da de da…"

Looked like Greg wanted something to do besides try to push at Kyle and get him out. "La da de la da, la-la da-da do, la-la le lo lu…" After the 'lu,' he started making weird noises with his lips.

After that, Kyle lurched forward a bit, and Lola's grunting could be heard: she was making another attempt at getting my brother out of the entrance.

"Oh, what the heck! Kyle, do the words go-on-a-diet-that's-not-a-chocolate-diet mean a thing to you?" questioned Lola. "I mean, seriously. You're too… I prefer not to call people fat, so let's go with chubby, okay?"

Kyle tried to give Lola a grudging look, but there was the slight problem that she was on the other side and couldn't see his face.

"OW! Geez, Kyle, you didn't have to KICK me over it," Lola protested. Greg and I exchanged an eyebrow raise, and I had to assume, just going on a limb (note the sarcasm), that Kyle had kicked her. Then Kyle smiled evilly and said, "HA! You'll never get me to stop eating my chocolate, muahahahaha!" He rubbed his hands together and got a maniacal look on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Um, you weren't offended by the fat- I mean, uh, chubby part?" Honestly, I was confused. Why else would I ask such question? Then he shook his head. "Nope. What about hubby darts? Like, women throwing darts at their husbands or something? I didn't hear anything like that." I slapped my hand to my head and simply told him to forget it.

Greg ripped off his sleeves and tore his jean cuffs. I felt like I would pass out at any moment, remembering the whole 'heat-stroke' thing. Just the memory of that made me woozy. I knew that was the least of my problems right now, considering the whole 'oh-my-gosh-we're-stuck-in-a-cave-and-can't-get-out-all-because-of-my-hooligan-of-a-brother-is-stuck-in-the-entrance' scenario. But the thought made me feel weird.

A while passed. I felt like dying, even though I probably would at some point soon. I mean, how often did demigods survive this kind of stuff?

Kyle lurched forward, much farther this time. Lola was making progress. I beamed happily: we were getting out soon. I grabbed Kyle's arms, which he protested on. I pulled hard, and he glared at me. Lola pushed, I pulled. Lola pushed, I pulled. You get the deal. Then Kyle came stumbling in the room, his head hitting hard stone. Greg went to be super-medic for our friend, while Lola slinked inside. I breathed heavily, eyes widening. _Air… fresh, clean air…_, I thought.

Luckily, Lola was quite agile and skinny, so she didn't have to squeeze through like Kyle did. She hugged me tightly, apparently forgetting what'd happened the night before. I didn't dare bring that up, either.

We watched as Greg acted as a good little medic, and you'd think he'd be a son of Apollo rather than Hephaestus. He carefully dabbed at Kyle's bloody head, and wrapped gauze on it.

"Nice, Lola," I commented. When she gave me a confused glance, I said, "On calling Kyle… er, 'chubby'." We laughed, and Kyle just glared solemnly at us, which only caused us to snicker and do a secret handshake that she'd made up in the fifth grade. It hadn't really ever made sense to me, but hey, Lola picked it out. And sometimes she was weird.

Once Kyle was deemed to be 'OK', Lola left the cave. Greg followed, and I came third quickly before Kyle could stop me. "Kyle, don't," Lola warned. Then she grabbed her Stygian iron sword and stabbed the rock, causing part of it to break off. The hole was now wider and taller, and Kyle could squeeze through no problem. I breathed a sigh of relief when we didn't have to tug at him to get him out. And you know what? I'm thinking we're normal again, until Lola decides to go rock-wall climbing minus the lava. She reached the middle, and summoned her child-of-Hades-ness by stabbing the rock and making it explode into a fine powder. As it happened, my friend jumped off so she wouldn't fall with the rubble.

"Show-off…," Greg muttered. "_What_ was _that_?" Lola demanded. Greg immediately took back what he said after he realized how fine-tuned Lola's ears apparently were.

"So…now what?"

I glared at Kyle. "I'll tell you what we're doing now. Getting the Hades outta here."

Lola got her turn to glare at _me_. "Never insult the death god, Eve. Quite offensive, tsk-tsk," she told me. I didn't respond to that.

Instead, Greg chimed in. "Hey, someone took our bikes!" he shouted. I looked to where he pointed, and noticed he was right; our bikes had gone POOF! on us. Then I saw a trail and followed it with my eyes. Three dumb idiots were riding away with the bikes, so far away that we'd never catch up to them unless we had… a bike. Which, now, we didn't.

We ran towards the burly dummies who'd stolen our only form of transportation. "HEY, get BACK here with OUR bikes!" Kyle yelled. Apparently he was better for more than just getting stuck in caves and eating chocolate, because he grabbed his sword and ran faster than the rest of us—a surprise considering how agile Lola was. I gaped at him. This was not expected at all, especially because it was _Kyle_. Kyle was just… himself. The strangest of our group, you might say. The runt of the four kids in the 'litter'. Yet somehow, he was the one to go off into danger. I thought about that. Oh dang, him going into trouble generally meant the rest of us getting in worse do-do than him. Which was a bad thing when you considered his luck.

The three amigos had somehow vanished, and I seriously hoped the Mist was playing tricks on me with mist. I also hoped that the Mist had covered up the fact that Kyle's sword was a sword, making it look like a baseball bat or something.

But I got the feeling that we weren't dealing with mug shot mortals who stole bikes from idiotic children who got themselves caught in caves.

The rest of us followed hastily, though I lagged behind a little. My leg, curse _empousai, _still stung from my encounter with Mrs. Dailey. Then again, wasn't that just last night? It _should_ still hurt. Not to say that I wanted to be in pain. Ah, never mind.

"Yeah, be feared! Now GIVE US THE DARNED BIKES!"

I doubted that Kyle's moment of pride and sudden outburst would get him far. I mean, they'd disappeared. Who exactly was he yelling to?

That was when I caught the trap.

"Kyle, STOP! It's a trick," I whispered. He either didn't hear me or didn't care, because he kept charging at nothing, yelling about bikes and how he'd run them through.

I saw their trap. It was so simple, even a child of the god of stupidity, if there was one, would get it. Maybe Kyle wasn't a son of Apollo and he was the son of the god of MAJOR stupidity.

I would tell you the trap, but then you'd probably get hurt by it somehow, later on. So I'll just say: idiots trick you into bad stuff.

And that's what happened. Kyle was being misled, tricked into being all brave and hero-ish, and since we, the good friends who tried to stop him, followed him, it led to a large, lit up cave. I heard voices in there, but in Kyle's ears, it must've been blocked by the sound him yelling his 'triumph' inside of his kooky little brain.

When we were so close, I realized there was an edge. A very steep edge. I had to hold Greg back as he was about to fall over.

There were monsters down there, plotting something evil. I didn't want to know. But that was until some magical force sucked us in, and we landed on the harsh, concrete ground from about twenty feet in the air.

"Ah, yessss. The heroessss have come. No esssscape, demigodssss," said a strange, reptilian voice. But I was out cold before I could figure anything.

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**Yup, I'm just leavin' 'em there like that. I'll make another chap soon, though, so don't worry.**

**:'D Ah, I love to take them out of danger just to put them in WORSE danger. x) But no, that won't keep happening. Though I hope you remember the perfume thingy on Hermes' magical map to nowhere. O: 'Tis important.**


	14. I Believe I Do, Isabelle

**This is one of my longest chapters! Huzzah! 8D *celebrates***

**Yes, they're still stuck there. And they're still there by the end of the chapter, too. But I promise, next chapter, I _will_ get them out.**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson & The Olympians or Twilight (you may question the Twilight part at first)**

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****Chapter 14**

**I Believe I Do, Isabelle**

As I went out cold, I had a dream instantaneously.

I had another dream where I was in the pit with Kronos. And let me tell you, being forced to stay in a dark, secluded area with your worst enemy doesn't exactly fit the description of 'pleasant'.

_Yield, little hero. You're already stuck with my minions now, no use attempting out of it. Yield,_ he told me. Like I was going to listen to the lord of the Titans. "You _do_ realize that, I hate you," I said flatly. I felt a sting in my gut after that, but I didn't regret my snide comment. _You are not wise to say such, stupid little girl. Help me rise,_ he crooned again. "Moronic Titan," I muttered. That time, I regretted my words. It felt like I would explode into a fine powder.

_Miserable daughter of-_, Kronos started. I was about to find out if my dad was Apollo or not, but _no_. I had to get a new dream.

Me and Lola and Greg and Kyle were in the place that we were dropped into. I was in the same position I remembered to be in before, looking up at the _dracaena_ with disgust and hate. I was awake, spite the terrible fall that would've killed a mortal. I couldn't hear anything, just like my dream of Rosa's getting to Camp. But I could definitely tell that it was bad. I hoped it would be a detailed dream, but some parts were blurred and choppy. I saw me yelling at the _dracaena_ woman, which concluded to her trying to turn me into a shish kebab. That part of my mission to annoy monsters was a fail. Then it blurred up and came to a girl with dark hair in an Iris Message, someone who I should've remembered even if I _was_ passed out, but I couldn't get my mind around who it was. She threw something and shouted, which normally would've broken up reception. But it stayed up. The last I saw was a very shocked Greg, and then the premonition went dark.

Utter blackness.

After a few minutes of that accursed utter blackness, my eyes opened. Well, one of them. The eye on my right refused to see the light of day… or, more like, the light of the-inside-of-the-evil-cave-that-is-filled-with-monsters-that-will-probably-get-us-killed-before-the-quest-finishes. But anyhow, I was up. Awake. _Alive_. I was grateful for that. But there was undoubtedly no time to thank Zeus, or whoever, so I shut up and went with it.

"W-where are we?" Kyle asked groggily. He looked like he'd had a nice sleep. I made a mental note to myself that I'd find out, and if he had a nice sleep I'd tell him he was lucky and lightly punch him in the shoulder.

I cleverly responded by saying, "A bad place." Kyle narrowed his eyes. "No, heck," he said sharply, which was surprising coming out of him.

"Mute, demigodssss."

"You mute, sssstupid ssssnake girl."

"You dare inssssult Sssscythian _dracaenae_?"

"Yessss, she doessss," Greg put in. I thought my impression of a _dracaena_ was good, but Greg's was better.

The snake lady hissed at him. "HEY! Don't you hissss at him, reptile legs," I warned. "You talk bad at a friend, you get your face messed."

"GREETINGS! Do not hissss at me, ssssilly half-blood." She obviously took my 'HEY!' as a greeting. Sssstupid _dracaena_.

And that's when the funny thing happened. I kind of grabbed for my sword, and instead I was trapped by snake lady, underneath her weight (I think she and Kyle might've been related), her spear not far above my face. Boy, why did _everyone_ I hated have spears? What was wrong with dang swords?

My dream was coming true, minute by minute.

Many things were passing in and out of my head during the moment, and in my flurry of thoughts came the prophecy.

_Demigods to find the stolen._ Well, we were working on that. It didn't look as if it were going all too well.

_Be saved by an immortal, a heart will be swollen._ Tough one there, admittedly. Heh… I'd have to think on that.

_Travel to a long to mortals unknown_: that was a given. Olympus, where I was now, someplace we hadn't been yet. Anywhere where the Mist was working.

_As all wraps up, a truth be bestown._ I still wanted that special truth to be told now, but I couldn't get into the spirit of Delphi's head, now could I? What a challenge to take up. No, no, I'd go bonkers trying.

To put things more simply: me plus prophecy equals "BAD NEWS, BAD NEWS, READ ALL ABOUT IT!" from any local demigod paperboy.

Then as my head wandered back to it's general state, it dawned on me that I still had a reptile on top of me. I couldn't sit back and think to the prophecy. I reached to my pocket for my celestial bronze dagger and smirked at the _dracaena_'_s_ shocked face when it elongated into a three foot long sword.

I tried to skewer her. In return, I nearly got to the Underworld. That would be one way I never wanted to meet uncle Hades.

Lola yelled a battle cry, for reasons in that I don't know. She charged a few of the many other monsters remaining on the sidelines. Why they hadn't already attacked, I had no clue. But she was in it. Greg was following her, charging towards a pack of hellhounds with his sword intact. His shield was wild: a whole bunch of mechanical and useful devices for battle. Mini-knives, a water-sprayer, a very painful looking spinning wheel that you'd see in kid's movies, with people being threatened on a bed that they're stuck to. But forget the kid movie thing, and let's move on, shall we?

Kyle was going at an _empousa_ with a large, sharp pencil. I doubted that would get him anywhere. What was he going to do, kill the she-demon with the power of algebra? I hoped not.

I hacked at the _dracaena_ woman, but she didn't turn to dust too easily considering her armor. I couldn't find a chink, either. "Oh, COME ON!" I yelled, right after I'd stabbed her and nothing happened. I just needed to find that slit in the bronze plating…

You know what happened next? I was attacked by a _Draco Aionius_, or if you want to be less specific, Latin for "really-big-lizard-that-blows-stuff-up". Yeah, being attacked by a giant lizard isn't the best thing you could wish for. You wouldn't find it on any demigod's Christmas wish-list.

Using my special sword against this thing didn't go too well. He took it by the mouth and burned it. It still worked, considering I killed a telkhine later, but it was badly burnt and too hot to hold. Especially in the moment that the _Draco Aionius_ had caught it on fire. Even the memory of that strikes pain into my hand.

The monster had me pinned. My only options were touch the blazing hot sword (I voted no), get eaten by a giant lizard before I even finished my quest (I was horrified at the thought of that), wait there (That option was a bit more welcoming), or scream at Lola or Greg (Kyle was out of the picture, considering all he had was a pencil that he could write on the ogres with) until they came over to distract the dang thing. I voted for the last one.

"A LITTLE HELP HERE," I shouted. I tried to keep calm, so I could say something sarcastic later.

To my relief, someone came to me. To my dismay, it was Kyle, who was stupid enough to fraction vampire donkeys to death (yeah, he wasn't too successful in doing so). "Need any help?"

"What do you think?"

"Uh… yes?"

_Smack_.

"Again, what do YOU think?" I said in a rage. _That is, _if_ he even_ does_ think at all,_ part of me thought.

"I'm going with yes."

"Smart boy," I said smugly.

He grabbed a sword from the floor and stabbed the monster in the back. At least that worked. But _no_, when I tried it was a burned ending to my sword.

Lola was doing good out there. Several hellhounds were down, quite a number of telkhines were fading, _dracaenae_ numbers had decreased like the Atlantic Ocean of snakes being sucked away. Greg was doing pretty well, too. He'd managed to get rid of a whole fleet of _empousai_, and I saw him slashing away at some monsters I was unfamiliar with.

For the first time, I noted a large, misty cage off to a corner of the large room. There was fog shrouding the cage, making it quite hard to see. But at the very top, I saw gigantic reptilian eyes glaring at me, then closing slowly. It made me shiver in my shoes, and I felt somewhat paralyzed. But I focused and grabbed my sword, now cool enough to use. The blade still looked burnt, but it worked fine. I cut up a telkhine with it, so I kind of figured.

Greg had somehow acquired a bow and arrow, so now he was shooting almost every monster he saw. But there were still about one-hundred-ninety monsters still standing in this game. We were out-numbered one-hundred-ninety man-killing monsters to four dang kids who couldn't catch a break. Our chances were falling off the boat.

"RAWR!"

Kyle's attempts at being ferocious epically failed, if you would be so kind to consider the million _dracaenae_ that tried to get at him after that. Lola had to stab them with her Stygian iron sword, causing them to go away instantly and fall through the Earth.

An _empousa_ came in on me.

I got struck by the realization that it was Mrs. Dailey again.

"You should be dead, half-blood. I'm doing whatever it takes to please Kronos, _Benson_," she snarled. She said my last name as if it choked her to say it. "I remember your test records when you were a 2nd grader in English class, Eve Beth Benson. They were all _quite_ ADHD-like." I winced at the sound of my middle name. I always refused that it was ever my middle name, but now that the four people closest to me knew, I supposed there was no use hiding my middle name now. They knew. But not only did I hate my middle name, Beth, I hated being called by full name. It reminded me all too much of when Mrs. Dailey and Mr. Blake the vice principal had yelled at me those many times as a little 7 year old, up until I was 10. Mrs. Dailey abandoned the school then, and Mr. Blake went bye-bye a year before when that sharp object had hit him randomly. He was a telkhine. I always felt so much safer when Ms. Pandora had taken over. But now, confronting Mrs. Dailey the _empousa_ again four years later? It was too much for this teen to fathom.

"So, you plan to have me dead before a prophecy comes true?"

"Essentially."

"That just proved any points there might've been that I'm a powerful demigod."

My _empousa_ enemy lunged at me and I thwacked her with my sword. It did no good; only whacked her away a few yards. She got up, hair flaming more than I'd ever seen, and tried to attack. It was how I'd imagined being attacked by those idiot guys from the stupid lovey-dovey vamp movie, '_Twilight'_. Basically, if you imagine that weird blonde who attacked Stella, or whatever her name was, and give him flaming hair with one automaton leg and one satyr leg, and turn him into a female with long wavy brown hair and red eyes, you've got Mrs. Dailey attacking me.

Wow. I'm making _'Twilight'_ references. What's come over me?

She disarmed me, my weapon skittering across the floor and landing in a place where I couldn't run to unless I wanted to be bitten by Mrs. Dailey, and actually _did_ try to bite me despite the fact that I didn't go after my special sword. My special, celestial bronze sword with the word 'pain' engraved in the midnight black, leathery grip.

"Any last words, daughter of—" She never finished. It was like a rerun of my Kronos dream: not getting to know my parent.

"SHE HAS NO RIGHT TO KNOW HER PARENT YET!" A familiar voice. But whom?

Looking back on it, Isabelle's idea was great. Catching the _empousa_ off guard just as she was about to kill me dead. My Greek-Speak tutor back at camp, Isabelle Slate, had thrown a large stone through the Iris Message. It should've killed the connection, but rather, it stayed up. I didn't know why that was, but the Message was clearer than any Iris Message I'd seen in the past, or heard about. They normally looked like the static you got when TV wasn't working well. This looked like she was actually there. But she wasn't, which was so confusing to me.

"Uh, yes I do!"

"Quiet, Eve!"

"Sorry, Isabelle."

Isabelle glared sideways as Mrs. Dailey. "Ms. Proc, oh so lovely to see you again," she said sarcastically.

"Ms. Proc? She's Mrs. Dailey," Lola put in from the background. She, Greg, Kyle, and all the monsters had stopped fighting to see the IM.

Isabelle shook that comment off like it bothered her none. "Anyways, e_mpousa_, she can't know her parent yet. And you can't change prophecies."

"I believe I do, Isabelle. I want to know, like, now!"

Mrs. Dailey gave Isabelle a smug face. "Bah. Prophecies are for demigods."

"Well… yes. Pretty much."

"ISABELLE! I'M GETTIN' TIRED OVER HERE!" I knew that had to be Percy. I looked closely at the background, and he was water skiing to make some mist for Isabelle so she could IM us.

"…Isabelle, how did that rock not disconnect us?" Greg asked timidly. I wasn't surprised he'd ask such a question.

My tutor looked at him funny. "My mom fell in love with Morpheus. Big whoop. My step-dad, Bob,—" Some laughs from monsters and Kyle. "—Fell in love with Iris. So basically, I've got a screwed family who'll never get a normal world. Iris does special favors, I suppose. Since Bob kind of divorced away from Mom, he has the right to marry Iris if he wants to. He hasn't yet, but this is so not my point."

"Agreed."

"SERIOUSLY, ISABELLE! I CAN'T DO THIS FOREVER!"

"Sorry you guys. Percy's getting tired," she said. Under her breath, she murmured, "As if that wasn't already obvious…" But soon she was back to her normal, perky self again, which seemed odd for a child of the god of dreams. "Bye!"

She disconnected the Iris Message, and my only idea of what was going on at camp was completely gone. My heart felt heavy, thinking about the fact that I was stuck on a life threatening quest instead of home. I'd rather be pulverized by Aphrodite scum than be pulverized by monsters who worshipped Kronos.

My dream had come true. I didn't want the dream. Because almost instantly, everyone was dueling again. And I wanted nothing to do with this wretched war against monsters who hated me.

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**What do you think? If you liked it, a review would be appreciated. If you didn't like it, a review (even if negative) will still be appreciated. If you don't care then don't review xD**

**.com/watch?v=HLOGKlq4S_M I think this song really connects to Eve, especially when we get to the sequel and/or threquel. Not so much now, but eh.**

**SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! NOT MUCH OF A SPOILER BUT IT'S A SPOILER! SPOILER!**

**Spoiler: Greg has a magical device that will get them out of here in Chapter 15.**


	15. We Get The Heck Out Of There

**Longer chappie! :D Sorry I took so long, I didn't have much inspiration, and...yah D8 But then, TONIGHT, this MIRACLE happened :'D I got ze inspiration, just enough to write this chapter. Huzzah ^o.o^**

**Ok, by now, I am DETERMINED to finish this fanfic before 2011. I need your guys' inspirations. Urge/cheer me on, my little kitties! D: I mean, um, my little fans? O: Hehe, I didn't say 'kitties' or anything, that would be stupid, ppsssh :U He he..he...heh P:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.**

**Claimer: I own everything else.**

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****Chapter 15**

**We Get The Heck Out Of There**

The first thing I saw when the battle was on? Under normal circumstances, I'd say I saw Greg killing a telkhine. But then again, when you're a half-blood trying to fend off millions of monsters all at once, I wouldn't call these normal circumstances.

What I saw was Mrs. Dailey the _empousa_ trying to kill Lola, when she was defenseless. Her Stygian iron sword was all the way across the room. Lola was incapable of reaching it as she was being cornered into the edge of that large cage. She was so skinny I was afraid that the she-demon would stick her in there. I still had no idea what kind of terrible monster was in there, but it made me feel stiff and weak.

I made a run for the sword. That's all I could think about, saving Lola…other than the fact that I still sort of felt like Apollo wasn't my dad and it was apparently a crime against prophecies to know. I still had no clue why I had 'no right to know', but I knew that I would find out if it killed me.

I was halfway across the room, almost to the sword, when it struck me. Isabelle had called the _empousa_ 'Ms. Proc'. She was Mrs. Dailey, not Ms. Proc. What the heck was that about? Then it dawned on me that, duh, monsters are everywhere. They'd go anywhere for a demigod no matter a circumstance. While half of me was wanting to scream "YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME!", I also considered the aforementioned statement about monsters. They probably would go anywhere to kill a half-blood, if it killed them. But then again, they'd just go to Tartarus. I mean, no one wants to be dead…again. Actually, never mind. If this makes any sense, I hope you know what I'm trying to say.

Finally, I grabbed the sword. Yes! But that was also when a Hyperborean giant scooped me up by the foot and I was hanging there, staring at a blue skyscraper's ugly face. I stabbed him with the sword. And when I say 'stabbed', I don't mean I stabbed like I would stab a practice dummy back at camp. I stabbed like the whole freaking world depended on it.

But that didn't stop the Hyperborean too much. Just made him mad. And I was using Stygian iron for crying out loud! You'd think _something_ would've happened. It was, like, the top in the list of things that could kill a monster quickest. What, did this thing bathe in the Styx or something? Then it hit me that he actually might've. Which caused me to go into a state of frenzy as I stabbed all around, just the thought of it. I was probably very mad, which made me question if Mr. D was interfering or something that would make me want to punch him, but I thought quickly. What was I thinking, you ask? First of all, your asking is sort of stalker-ish, and second, I thought about where a good Achilles spot would be. The name Achilles just had me thinking myths, but I strained my ADHD brain to focus for a minute. Armpit? Painful. Toe? No, a toe was too visible and easy. That would be stupid….Eyeball? That would be ideal. What _idiot_ stabs their opponent in the _eyeball?_ My guess, a dumbbell who knew nothing about sword fighting. Now there were no other places I could think of. So I stabbed all three. The armpit one made him aggressive. Stabbing him in the toe was not a good plan, considering how he kicked my face…with that same toe. Now my face was a bit bloody…woo-hoo. I tried the eyeball approach. Instead of it bleeding and him dying, I got the eye_ out of the socket_, on _Lola's_ sword, and him dying. I'd probably get poked by Lola for three hours for this. He fell to the ground, might I mention a great impact, with me still in his grasp…ow. Talk about a way for a demigod 'hero' to fall. Literally.

I shoved my way out of the Hyperborean's fingers (which was a bit hard. They were huge.) and looked to Lola. Still defenseless, Ms. Proc…Mrs. Dailey… ugh, you know what I mean. The _empousa_ (sound better now?) had her cornered. My best friend, the daughter of death herself, if you will, was about to be dead. "How ironic," I muttered. I pushed the eyeball off of the sword (it was disgusting) and charged the _empousa_. (At this rate, I'll spare you the confusion and just call her an _empousa_.)

By now, I was used to Cyclopes and telkhines and _dracaenae_ and _empousai_. But _empousai_ that shoved little girls into cages? That was just…charming. Sarcasm intended. I stabbed the she-demon with Lola's Stygian iron sword, causing my old English teacher to cripple and fade. I smiled victoriously. Lola got up and shook her head at me, like I'd planned on the whole 'being-captured-by-a-giant-blue-ogre-like-thingy-and-almost-getting-killed-before-actually-saving-my-best-friend" incident. She glared, when I'd hoped for a hug and smile, and snatched the sword from my hand. I rolled my eyes and checked my pockets for my sword. I knew it had to have compacted into a dagger for convenient storage. But then I saw it. Kyle. He had my celestial bronze sword and was fighting with it. Ugh. I looked around for _his_ sword. Nowhere to be found. Then I whipped around to see Greg fighting with Kyle's sword and his own sword, which seemed like a good use of an idiot's sword to me. But that idiot took _my_ sword. I kind of needed it? Now I was the defenseless one. _Not _cool.

I felt stupid. And I probably was. I mean, Eve Beth Benson, daughter of unknown, not fighting in the middle of a full-on fight. That sounded stupid to me, how about you?

That thing in the cage was freaking me out. I bit the bottom of my lip in frustration, and simply ran out of it's line of sight. It felt like I was being petrified, somehow. I don't even want to explain it, it felt so weird and scary.

Greg was fighting not only with two swords, but still with that shield in front of him. That must've been awkward positioning. "Eve, CATCH!" he shouted. A small blue object fell in my hands just after he threw his arms out to, I'm just guessing, throw something. That was obviously the 'something'. I looked at it carefully as a group of _dracaenae_ crowded me. They wanted Greg's thingymabob. And I was weaponless. Oh gee, what an excitement. In truth, it was quite a predicament I was in. I mean, a bunch of snake things chasing after a crazy fourteen year old holding a thingamajig? That wasn't cool in my book. I saw off to a side, guards. _Mortal_ guards. Mortals. Mortals in THIS place? They must've been some pretty stupid, brave, or straight-up weird. Maybe all of the above. I was going with 'all of the above'. I ran to the right wing of the room, and nearly tripped on the cement floor while doing so. I bumped Kyle in the elbow, causing him to go off balance. Now, you'd think the monster he was fighting (a hellhound, I believe) would've sliced him to bits. But my getting him off balance got him to maneuver a certain way and he stabbed the beast. Buh bye, doggie. You shall see better days back in the Underworld, 'kay?

Kyle had a blood red scratch on his cheek. The rest of his head was scratched and dirty, his messy black hair even messier. The expression he gave me made me worried that he, being the idiotic one who scribbled on monsters with a giant pencil, would want to pulverize me. Not a good sign. I showed him what I'd gotten from that son of Hephaestus and he seemed to automatically understand. He smiled hugely. I gave him a confused look and excused the matter. Kyle did to Lola what I'd done to him, and my best friend screamed at him. I giggled to myself. Delnz explained to Lola about whatever Greg had planned, and she smirked. "Good enough for me," she said. My friend sheathed her sword and put a hand on her hip, like that was appealing or something. Greg got the memo, considering we'd stopped fighting. He joined the three of us in our little group circle, monsters surrounding us. I figured we'd be hellhound chow, but Greg took the thing from me and pressed a button. It was a dang calculator. But the switch-like thing he pushed caused a little flap to open up slowly. It could be used as a calculator, but it was a device. One that he probably forged himself. You name it, it would probably be in there. A lot of stuff was in that dang math item. And I hated math, which made me annoyed and start to think about algebraic fractions and stuff. Oh, the joy.

He pushed a tiny lever, and a grappling hook leapt out. Greg spun it around like a lasso and threw it up to the ceiling (a big accomplishment considering how high that puppy was) and he climbed on. He reached out his hand, and I reluctantly took it. I did not want to be touching a guy's hand. I was dang fourteen! Disgusting. But I followed him up. It took all of my strength to keep my balance while crawling up the thing. Somehow, Greg had gotten up all the way. I envied him after that. I was losing balance and focus. I nearly fell off, I might mention. I had to touch his hand again if I wanted to stay on that wire. I reluctantly took it, again. I was at the top. With Greg. Now I could question him. "WHY did you not think of this EARLIER?" I asked. Meanwhile, Lola was climbing. She'd decided that it was okay to leave Kyle behind at the bottom. To her, he was the lesser half-blood on the quest. I couldn't blame her. But a _Draco Aionius _was starting to come after him. So after Lola was up, Greg forced Kyle to hang on tightly so he could "reel it in", as he'd put it.

He never answered my question the way I'd wanted him to. His blue eyes looked at me with pity. "I'm sorry. It was kind of a quest thing. Prophecies. That stuff. Hard to explain," Greg sighed. I almost felt bad for him; he looked really sorry.

In no time, Kyle was up and we could escape. Thank the gods. That monster in the cage was giving me the creeps, and I didn't want to stay there anymore. We all ran like there was absolutely no tomorrow.

"I can't believe—," Lola started, panting. "—We got out of there! I thought—," Cue the panting. "—We'd be killed by—," Yet more panting. "—All those monsters." I nodded in agreement. "We have to make camp for the night. It's really late," I put in.

"With all those monsters down there?" said Kyle. "No way. We're heading out for the night." He pointed far off into the distance, the slightest sliver of civilization seen over yonder. I figured maybe he was right: we'd be attacked during the night again. We couldn't risk becoming Kronos' possible servants or bait or whatever he'd use us for.

Greg nodded. "We go there. We don't have the bicycles anymore, so…how do we get there?"

I gave him a grim look. "I have no idea. But it will take a while."

I hated to do it to him, I did, but I was so worn out and tired that I couldn't take it. "Greg?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm too tired to walk. Give me a piggy-back ride."

"Interesting words for a fourteen year old."

"Shut up, Willins."

"Fine. Hop on."

So I hopped on Greg's back and forced him to carry me. He didn't complain, though, which I was grateful for. I didn't want to annoy him despite myself.

"Well, let's go find some civilization," Lola managed.

I nodded. I didn't hope we'd take a while.

We started over the dirt floor (hardly any plants—kind of a desert), not knowing where we were going, using Greg like a camel.

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	16. Circe

**Oh boy, I got it up quickly :D One of my longest chapters, possibly _the_ longest. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: You get this now...right? O.o**

**Claimer: I think you get the point in this too :P**

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****Chapter 16**

**Circe**

Something told me Greg was not happy about being ridden on. Let's see, shall we? A) Women's intuition, B) He implied it, or C) He was complaining. I'm going to go with C. You?

"Eve…This is getting tiring. Off?"

"No way. I ain't walking all the way to that town."

"It's six feet away!"

"…Your point?"

"Fine," he grumbled. He didn't seem to be in a good mood, but all I could see of him was his arms and his blonde hair right in front of me. I couldn't see if he was showing any expression or not. All I knew was that he'd be free of my weight (hey, HEY! Don't get the wrong idea) in…oh, four feet. We'd already walked two of them since our little disagreement.

We walked the next fourty-eight inches in silence.

Fortunately, walking four feet wasn't exactly a challenge. For them. Mwuahaha—um, that totally wasn't maniacal laughter or anything. Heh-heh.

We didn't seem to be in the town I saw from the distance, a few hours ago from the monster's den. Now it was… a resort. At least, that's what it looked like. I could never tell with the Mist swirling around. Even to demigods, it was fooling.

I took everything in. And it was weird: there were women in chairs, which was normal, but there were wild animals lying around and I didn't see any boys except for Greg and Kyle. And that was when I got off of my friend's back, while he stretched his back like there wasn't going to be a tomorrow. I guess I'd hurt him that bad. Oh, well. I looked around some more, just to make sure I'd seen things right from up there. Nope, no boys. Wild animals lounged around with the humans. And there were a whole bunch of ships in the…water? What the heck? If there was the ocean there…and the desert was gone…then what happened? This was weird. But all I knew was that I wanted out.

Unfortunately, I did not _get_ 'out'.

A woman in a business suit came up to us. She didn't ask our opinions or anything, she just scooted us into the resort. "Um, no. I will not go in there. C'mon, lady, we've been walking all day," I said. Greg gave me a look. "You didn't walk at all! You had me carry you like a camel!" he exclaimed, horrified at what I'd just said. I covered my mouth to keep myself from giggling.

The girl gave us a stern 'you-cut-that-out-or-I-will-personally-kill-you' look, which definitely got us to shut up. "Names?" she asked. I didn't want to give this stranger my actual name, but _somebody_ (cough-Kyle-cough) was stupid enough to give it away. "I'm Kyle Ray Delnz. This is Lola Anne Ruman—" Cue Lola's face-palm. "-, Eve Beth Benson—" Cue _my_ face-palm. "—And Gregory Finn Willins." Lola had to stop herself from laughing at Greg & I's middle names. I made a mental note to turn the tables on her and poke her for eternity once this stupid quest was over with. "Oh, don't mind him, miss, he's confused in the head. That's, um, Fredrick Court, the confused one. Blondie girl—" I was interrupted by Lola shouting at me for calling her that. I glared. "Blondie girl is Ileana Roadman." Lola, this time, smiled at how close I got to her real name. She could be herself without actually being herself. I pointed to Greg and said, "This is Manny Burkowitz. I'm Ava Jenson." After the lady wrote that down, Greg whispered to me, "Why am _I_ Manny?" I gave him 'the look'. "Because it was off the spot thinking, genius. I had nothing else in my mind. I'm not an Athena kid!" I whispered.

I didn't know where this crazy lady was guiding us, but it ended when we met yet another crazy lady in a room filled with torture: books and resources and a weaving set up. I did not have a good feeling about this place.

Crazy Lady Number Two smiled at us. "Guests? Come, sit. Ah, I see we have females. Good, I-" she started, but then she noticed 'Fredrick' and 'Manny'. "Oh. Boys. I see…hmm, let's see. Oh, of course! I nearly forgot! I'm C.C." I didn't trust this 'C.C' person. But it sounded like someone I remembered from myths…I think it was one with Jason. No, Odysseus. Maybe. It sounded like…no, no. This lady looked to nice to be such a bad person. I mean, I didn't trust her, but she still looked like she didn't do much harm. And I fell into the trap.

Maybe this part should be told from a different point of view…

Greg's POV

Hey there. By now, I hope you've noticed the transition from Eve (aka Love) to me. Yeah, well, Eve thinks that my side of the story is more interesting than what happened to her. And I don't see how anything could be more interesting than her—I mean, uh, of course she's right! What happened to her and Lola (aka Probable-Death) was so boring, I meant.

"Hylla, please take the lovely girls to the spa. I need to, er, _talk_, with these menaces—wait, did I say menaces? I meant boys! Hurry along, then!" And with that, 'Hylla' took Love and Probable-Death away to some gross spa thing. Not for me, and by the looks of them, they weren't pleased with this either. I gave them a look of pity. Then I wondered if I'd see them again or if I'd rather be in a spa than stay to chat with this girl. She may've fooled Love into going away and letting herself get Aphrodite'd up, but she wasn't fooling me and…Fredrick. I wasn't too happy about being stuck with Kyle, even if he'd been my best friend for a long, long time. I hate to say this about the man, but he was dumber than cork.

When they were completely out of sight (much to my dismay), C.C. turned on us. She had dark hair, but when you're a dyslexic/ADHD kid, you start to see things after a while. Her dark hair was looking a bit more blonde than dark…weird.

C.C. had taken the clipboard of fake names from Hylla, and looked them over. "Which one of you is Manny?" Without thinking, I raised my hand. In the moment, I really wished I wasn't so obedient back in school. "Ah. Yes. Now, you must be Fredrick…hmm, let us see. You two boys should probably leave this area of the room…before someone sees us." C.C. led us into a room right next-door, and faked a smile.

"Tell me, boys, what is your own flaw you'd rather live without? What's the one thing you _want_ in life? I can erase the unwanted, give to you the thing you want."

I eyed her. I didn't trust her, not at all. But Kyle was obviously phased: "I don't like how messy my hair keeps getting. Get rid of it. Oh, and I want FOOD, and I want to be a BABE MAGNET."

_Slap_.

Now, generally I'd expect such a sentence from Kyle, but _now? Really?_ I mean, sure, I was Captain Obvious when it came to my liking Eve, but I wasn't that _stupid_.

I hesitated to talk to C.C. I couldn't manage it out of my mouth. Truth was, I actually might've been as stupid as Kyle. I wasn't saying anything, no way, but I sure was thinking some stuff—oh, let's just say, I wanted to get rid of some awkward freckles on my arms, and face. What I wanted? Well, my nickname for Eve up there ('Love') should explain it.

I didn't tell C.C. anything, but it was like she read my mind. "Ah, you like a girl, I see. I can help you with that, Greg."

I froze. She only knew me as Manny Burkowitz, right? Then…oh gods. If she'd read my mind, she could've read Kyle's. And Kyle would say anything whether outside his mind or inside. "_How_ do you know my name?" I asked, shaking. But C.C. only smiled at me. "You're…easy to read. I'll put it that way," she told me. I clenched my teeth. "Yeah? What's. Her. _Name?_" And if I got Eve Benson as her reply, I'd be freaked out.

Thankfully, the only response I got from her was, "Why, that would be not of my business to enter in to, Greg." Which worried me further, I should say. At this point, I needed some peer pressure to hold me back from blurting something out. And I was _not_ about to hold _Kyle's_ hand. And I wouldn't be going near Probable-Death's hand, either, if Lola was here. If only Love were here…I mean, um, I wanted to get away from C.C. And then, I made the connection:

C.C. and Circe. Sound similar? In the myths, Circe hated boys and turned them into pigs. Right now, it seemed a lot like she hated us. And we were the only boys.

"C.C…you're Circe. Circe…AHHH!"

Honestly, I wouldn't scream like so in general. But this was the child of Helios and Hecate, the one who turned men into pigs. How could I not scream?

Even Kyle knew who I was talking about, thank Zeus.

We tried to bolt out of there. But Circe used magic and pulled us back. I wanted to curse Hecate, the goddess of magic, for being her mother. Life would be a whole lot easier in the moment if only Circe did not have powers. Was that too much to ask?

Unfortunately, it was.

Kyle & I were kind of suction-cupped to Circe now. She was now saying a chant, and I felt my insides change. I was shrinking. Now, I didn't get hog-like instincts. Instead, I got sloth-like instincts. I was almost done changing—and just wait until I found out it was a really, _really_ bad change. I looked around. There was a mirror on the other side of the room. I looked in…and didn't see myself. No, seriously, I didn't see a human being. Or a pig, or even a guinea pig. Instead, two turtles. Kyle and I were turtles. I'd say 'crap', but I prefer not to say something as bad. So, I'll say, "Crud."

Circe scooped up Kyle. I tried to run when she went for me, but hey, I was a turtle. I was going to be genuinely slow. The enchantress got me. This was when I seriously wished she'd turned me into a snapping turtle instead.

Well, I suppose we can switch back to Love's—I mean Eve's point of view now.

Eve's POV

Well, reading his point of view was…freaky. Anyways, I walked into the room with Lola (or according to Captain Obvious, 'Probable-Death') to see C.C.—or, now that you know, Circe—holding two turtles in the air. Right away I realized that my friends were gone. Then those must've been… the turtles were…oh, gosh. Seriously?

Then I remembered something I'd heard in an Iris Message once:

"_Ok, just _don't_ leave Greg and Kyle alone when you get to-," _Percy had said. And before I could hear what he had to say, Annabeth had screamed, "_SEAWEED BRAIN!"_ and Percy bolted. Now I knew what that meant. Yay?

"Do you see, boys? Just as promised. Kyle, you now have absolutely no hair to even get messy, and you can have all the leaves you want! And I'm sure the female tortoises will be very attracted to you," Circe joked. I don't know what Kyle said, but I'm pretty sure he was protesting. "And Greg! All those flaws you had, _gone_. And I'm nearly positive this Eve girl will love having a pet turtle…"

Lola raised an eyebrow. "I thought you did guinea pigs. And pigs, way back when."

Circe groaned. "That _Percy Jackson_ boy ruined _that_ for me. I switched to a completely different species, one that can't get away as well as those rodents did. Turtles, much more suitable than what I assumed was more suitable than hogs."

She said Percy's name like she regretted even thinking about him. And if she hated a nice guy who couldn't shoot arrows the right way, why did she hate my friends so much that she did that?

Greg seemed to be protesting under that shell of his more than Kyle was. I didn't see how Circe understood him, but she said, "Ah, well, 'Manny', since you seem to insist…" He made a squealing sound in more argument. (I later found out that he had told Circe that I wasn't a turtle and he couldn't 'be with me') Circe pointed an evil finger at Lola and started to say something, when I jumped in front of my friend. She was planning to use her, and I knew that. I'd be alone if she got Lola, I'd be the only normal one in the gang and I'd never handle a quest alone.

Circe stopped to glare. "Out of my way, child."

"Nope," I said simply, popping my 'p'.

She didn't bother to argue with me. Instead, she just revealed a crate-like thing and dumped my turtle friends in there. My eye twitched. I wasn't going to tolerate it.

I randomly charged. I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but I was making a move for it. I would get Circe and turn my friends human again. Granted, I didn't know how I would defeat an evil sorceress and de-turtle-ify a couple of half-bloods, but I'd have to do something.

My charging was no success and I wasn't shocked at all, either.

Circe whacked me back to the wall with her power, and I hit the side of the room with a bone-jarring thud. I sat there unconscious for a second, and I didn't get up too fast either. I got up weakly and meekly, and I didn't suppose this gal was scared of or threatened by a fourteen year old girl who looked like she'd just dived into a pool filled with blood and dust…mostly the dust.

"Eve, look!"

And I looked, thanks to Lola's shouting in my ear. And there, on a small display on the other side of the room, was a lyre.

Apollo's lyre.

I ran at it and grabbed it off of it's shelf, picked up Kyle and Greg (at the same time handing one of them to Lola) and we ran for our lives. Away from Circe, away from this horrifying place, away with the boys being carried in our arms, and possibly most important of all: my dad's lyre. Well, more like least important. I didn't care about Apollo and I wanted nothing to do with his stuff.

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**Eh? Eh? :D Kristen thought of the turtles thing, so, round of applause for Kristen! *applause***

**I realized I've made Kyle stupid-er and stupid-er. So, let's have a poll: either keep him this dumb, or go back to his regular self.**

**I have things planned, so no suggestions, ok?**

**Writing in Greg's point of view was probably the most fun thing I've done with this story since the beginning. It was just so much fun to try and get into a male's mind, especially this male. I've done girl POV's all my life, so... yeah :P**

**If any of you people think I'm robbing Percy's story plot, you are wrong. Did they find a lyre there? No. Did they get turned into turtles there? No. So be quiet :B**

**They're getting to the end soon, this thing is planned to be 23 chapters long, and one of them is going to be short. So...kiss it goodbye at some point soon o.o**

**Wow, I talk too much O_o Later guys *poof***


	17. Run, Eve, Run

**Long-ish chapter! Sorry for not updating, my computer has been on dial-up and didn't elt us on the Internet ;~;**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

**Claimer: I think you get it now.**

**You might get a little bit mad at me :}**

**

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****Chapter 17**

**Run, Eve, Run**

I don't think it's too hard to try and figure out what happened next: we ran for our doomed little lives.

Now, I've done some pretty weird things in my life, but not something as strange as running-through-a- spa-with-Apollo's-lyre-and-two-of-my-best-friends-are-turtles-and-while-I'm-bothered-by-that-fact-I-have-my-closest-friend-nagging-me-about-how-we'll-die-soon.

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE SOON!"

"WELL, YOU'RE A DAUGHTER OF _HADES_! YOU'RE _GOING TO_ FIND _SOME_ SORT OF RELATION TO DEATH! I SHOULD'A KNOWN YA WOULD!"

"SO WHAT?"

"NEVER MIND, JUST _RUN!_"

How do they say it? Oh, yeah. "Enough said."

And _while_ we were complaining at each other, Greg the turtle was glaring at Lola, as if to say, _"Stop that, Lola. Would she yell at you like that? No."_ Normally, I'd agree with Turtle-Greg (no matter how creepy he could get when it came to me), but actually, I probably would've been shouting as if my dad was the god of shouting. I mean, I _had_ been shouting, but not as loud and obnoxious as I could go. And trust me, I'd had experience in the past with such yelling.

I wondered if the Stoll brothers back at camp would've gotten away faster than us.

We were almost caught by one of the guards/spa-people/whatever-people-things. But fortunately, when they saw turtles, they said, "EWWW! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" and ran.

Lyre in hand, we started to run faster for fear of being caught for real.

Ok, so maybe things wore off. After a little bit, I was holding a human Greg (it was heavy-duty to hold a guy like that…pun intended). Lucky Lola still had Kyle in turtle form. Maybe he was willing himself on or something, like he wanted to be a reptile for a little longer. If I was right, I'd kick him in the shin for being an all-around idiot. I figured he'd get us killed one day.

I jumped and admittedly screamed bloody slaughter when Greg suddenly turned into a human. He looked extremely happy—_I_ looked extremely furious and/or dumbfounded. Now Greg could carry his own weight with running, but a turtle was easier to handle. Well, at least one of them was no longer a turtle. Kyle…had problems. I'd deal with it later. But now we had to run.

And as we ran for our lives from Circe (didn't like me) and Hylla (didn't like me either) and everyone else (who, let's just assume for the moment, didn't like me), I saw something—or, _someone_, more like.

'Twas the man from my memory, and all through my soul, every creature and thing was stirring, even the part that had little heart. Wow…I'm hopeless. I'm rewriting Christmas poems that I've never even cared that much for.

Anyways, the guy from my dreams was standing at the door. It was my father and I knew it…and as much as I wanted to run up there and shout at him, "Why did Apollo claim me! IT WAS YOUR FREAKING JOB TO!" or "Hi daddy. Miss me and mom?", I knew he was a god and I was on a quest and he had to be there for some other reason and I just couldn't. No matter how much I'd been taunted about it, no matter how tempting it was, I couldn't bring myself to do anything but run.

He was a man with a biker outfit and he looked sort of mean—I wasn't sure I wanted a 'mean' dad. I wasn't sure exactly how mom had fallen for this dude, either. Or how he'd fallen for a scrawny, clammy woman that looked nor acted at all like him (actually, she looked like a much older version of Lola). And then a million things came at me at once. Like, for example, how was he doing? How would I figure out which god this was? Did he care about me? Why'd he go after eight months? Something about a granola bar. Why did he look so mysterious and motorcycle gang material? I certainly wasn't motorcycle guy-like. I was a girl anyhow. Was this Zeus? Poseidon? Hades? Ares? Hermes? I ruled out Hermes—I knew what he looked like. Sadly, a lot like Apollo. Hephaestus? (That one would be bad for Greg's sake). It had better not have been Dionysus. Eck, didn't want _him_. Besides, I knew what he looked like. I'd even gotten a personal glaring-at when I stood up in the dining pavilion the night of the food war. I'd sat down immediately afterward. Then my mind went off to minor gods: Morpheus? Eros? (He was kind of Cupid. I didn't want Aphrodite's godly son as my dad. Creepy). Zelus? Asclepius, Hypnos, Aeolus, Boreas, Notus? Euros, Zephyrus? Heck, Pan? My mind even wandered _really_ far off. Thanatos? Thaumas? And what if I was a demititan? Where would that get me? Probably, jail, sooner or later. I mean, Kronos, Oceanus, Ouranos (aka Uranus), Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Aigaios, Hyperion, Krios, Perses, Nereus…those would all get me in trouble. Not only in the real world, at camp. People would hate me. Now I just had to hope that I was no demititan.

"Dad?" I whispered as I passed, voice cracking.

He nodded. I didn't know what was behind his sunglasses, but I didn't think he needed them. I didn't think that whatever was behind them was eyes. I got the sudden urge to hit something, but I refrained. I had to.

I tried to play a flicker of a smile on my lips. "Hi dad," I said quietly, and attempted a wave. But by that time, he vanished. Some dad. Normal dads didn't leave their kids like that. Normal dads didn't even vanish, or wear that stuff, and they _really_ weren't supposed to be gods! _Gods!_ Why, oh why, had Lily Benson not married a mortal? I would've been alive. I would've been okay. I just would've had a regular dad. A regular dad with a regular occupation. I'd have been mortal had it not been for my dad who didn't care enough to just claim me right there and then. When I first saw him about less than a minute ago, I was hoping he'd do something heroic and awesome. But no. I get a nod and then, _POOF!_ No three wishes for you. I would've only asked for two—that he claim me right away and that he reveal his identity before I tensed up even more. If he had been a genie anyway.

I forced myself to stop glaring at the wall where my dad had once stood. I forced myself to unclench my fists. I forced myself to catch up to Lola despite my curiosity of who the heck this was and what kind of dad he would be. I just knew that I recognized him and that I had a connection. And that he looked absolutely nothing like me. Then again, had I ever looked like Mom? Nope. I wondered where I'd gotten my looks from. I wished there was some random family tree that would pop up in thin air and I could figure out genes. I threw that thought in the trash several minutes later when I bumped into a real tree and got a mouthful of splinters and bark.

Now I'd love to tell you about how we ran out of there and saved the day and I was claimed and we got high honor ship. Well guess what, it didn't happen. That hadn't even happened to Perseus. And when I say Perseus, I mean Percy. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and stopper of the Titan war? Yeah, that Perseus.

We ran out at top speed, yes. And we actually caught a good break. When we stormed out of the doors, we were in a city. A nice and peaceful looking city, except for some hobos here and there and the occasional smell of smoke. And not the good, barbeque smoke.

Remember that tree I mentioned? Yeah. The one that gave me eternal pain in my gums. Let's just say I thought it was some idiotic human at first and tried to throw-punch it. That would've gotten me some serious case of OUCH. But _no_, nah, I didn't do that or anything. Pff…

…Fine, I did.

We were in New York, I was _well_ aware of that. But Waterbury or Manhattan? I even considered some places such as Lowville, Cortland, and Kingston. But I quickly shoved those ideas aside. This was Waterbury. I recognized the place, the smell, even what was going on. I was too connected to the place to not know this stuff.

Some guy came up to us and fwapped a newspaper in our faces. "BEAT IT, KIDS!"

We walked away slowly.

Even Kyle couldn't will himself to stay like a turtle, and Lola sensed it. She set him on the ground, just in time as Kyle turned human. Dang it! Now I'd have to go days with him bugging me—and I'd have to understand him saying it, too. Did I mention '_DANG IT!'_?

I looked at Lola. "Well…we're home," I said hopefully.

She cracked a small smile. "Yeah…but now we must go to Olympus. That's in Manhattan. We're in Waterbury. Waterbury is so far from New York City. And it's not like taxis go that far in one night."

"Well, no," Greg put in. "But I know a certain god that might be willing to give four demigods a hand to home."

He gave us a sneaky smile, which I thought should have belonged on Kyle's face. Could Greg Willins be more sneaky and playful than we thought?

Apparently not.

I was just getting sure he'd be getting to be more fun to hang around with, but he just whistled. He whistled and someone came zipping through the air from the south direction. We had to avert our eyes unless we wanted to be the next victim of a probable new enemy.

Turns out, this guy (who had now switched out of divine form, thank the gods) was not going to be a problem nor enemy.

"I am Notus, god of the South Winds. And _you_," he pointed his finger at all of us "have just interrupted a good time just south of the Caribbean. Pay up, boy."

Greg tossed him some drachma.

Notus smiled. "Ah, there we are. Now, down to business. What do you need? I have some dryads waiting back south. Even though I'm no popular god or important god or a 'party animal', I can't keep the dryads waiting. Hurry up."

I thought of something rather quickly. "Oh, you're not important? But you control one of the four wind directions! That's plenty important!" I exclaimed, pretending to favor him closely.

The god looked pleased with himself. "Well, ah, I know. But the other wind gods don't seem to agree, see, especially Zephyrus. And the Olympians, oh for gods' sakes, they hardly care. I don't seem to matter as much as some others."

"I thought Zephyrus was a good guy?" said Kyle.

"Oh, those stories of him and that girl are most likely lies. He has not once told me of this girl and refuses to explain. Bah! What a party-pooper. Those myths make him sound so strong and important."

"I feel your pain," I tried to empathize. Even though I certainly didn't feel his pain. "You're an awesome god. Don't let those others get in your way!"

He was starting to sniffle, but he quickly looked up. "Do you think so?"

"Yep."

"Oh, thank you. Now, what did you want? I'll do it."

Greg gave us a look and stepped forward. "We, um, well, we need to get to Olympus," he said softly, crossing his fingers behind his back.

"To go see the Olympians? Oh, not for you, not for you. For the kind girl, yes. For geeky looking boy and boy with the glassy look in his eyes like he's lost, no." Lola glared and Notus shivered. "And…for…the scary looking…_girl_…no. Only for…ah, what is your name?"

"Eve Benson."

"Yes. Only for Eve Benson, The Kind."

I raised an eyebrow and Lola started laughing at me, going into hysterics. Apparently it was so funny that she was starting to cry about it. Dang friends.

"Um, it's just Eve, sir."

"Whatever you say, Ms. Eve Benson. Can I get specific reason for going to Olympus, Ms. Eve Benson?"

I wanted to slap my forehead. What kind of a god was this? "Well…" I held up the lyre, and Notus' eyes practically popped out of his head. "Oh, I see. Well, yes. Of course," he stammered.

"I need my friends to come too."

Notus wavered. "Well, er, um, oh, fine. But only because you asked, Ms. Eve Ben—"

"Just Eve!"

"Sorry, Ms. Eve. No more 'Benson'. Just 'Ms. Eve'. Got it."

I wanted to say that I didn't want to be called 'Ms.', but the god of the south wind probably wouldn't listen, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Ok, get ready for take-off, Ms. Eve and…_friends_." He said 'friends' like he couldn't believe I had friends like these. And like he wanted some better ones. "It won't take long!"

Since I felt kind of bad for the guy, I gave him some drachma. Sure, I'd pick-pocketed Greg for them, but hey. They were for a god.

Notus perked right up and we were practically shot out of the sky in the south direction. "GOODBYE, MS. EVE!" he shouted from the ground, and after that I had to avert my eyes as he went back to godly form for travel. I hoped those dryads of his didn't get turned into firewood with Notus going divine.

Sky-travel is not fun. Imagine being shot out of the biggest catapult in the world and going about fifty feet high, and then try to imagine that two times as bad.

This would be the part where I shall say 'I told you so.'

"I DIDN'T THINK SKY-TRAVEL WOULD BE THIS BAAAAAAAD!"

Kyle's exclamation was followed by all three of us attempting to hit him in the head and failing as we free-fell over Manhattan.

Either I'm channeling Jimmy Fallon or I've gone insane, because this was the next thing I said:

"Thank you, Notus, for shooting us fifty feet high. Bravo, you've succeeded in killing us!"

None of us laughed.

Then again, when we're flying through the NYC at the speed of a cheetah, it wasn't likely for one to laugh or smile or have a smidgen of a good time.

I tried to use Gregory (did I just say 'Gregory'? Whoops, sorry Greg!) as my human shield as we plummeted towards the earth. We hit the hard cement of the Manhattan floor (covered with gum, mind you) coming from so high that my head was bleeding the slightest and I entered into the land of concussions.

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**Eh? Eh? Review! :-D**


	18. All For Nothing

**Yeah, I hate my Internet P: Stupid dial-up. Stupid tower thing.**

**Well, enough of my complaining ^.^ Time to read my longest chapter ever. I broke my record, it shot way past 2,000- I hit 3,244 words. Oh yeah!**

**But, even though my computer _has_ been stupid to me (aka Not letting me on the Internet), it gave me more reason to write. I had nothing better to do other than watch TV endlessly (which I got kind of bored with, believe it or not), so I got this chapter finished and I had chapter seventeen finished. All within the time that my computer hated me :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or anything else mentioned in here that you'll definitely find**

**Claimer: I own EB,D.**

**

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****Chapter 18**

**All For Nothing**

I fell with a thud.

Is that all I'm going to say about it?

Heck no.

It was extremely painful, and I couldn't think. It felt like someone had hit me in the head with an anvil, but five times worse. Moral: don't free-fall from fifty feet high in the air. And don't let certain wind gods help you out.

I woke up confused. Where was I? Was I in Massachusetts or something? What was going on? Why was that hot dog guy across the street refusing to let his customer get mustard? My world thought it would never know. But then I quickly regained my memory. I was in Manhattan, New York. I was on a quest, that's what was going on. And heck, I knew that hot dog vendor from those times Symphony Elementary had gone on field-trips to the main portion of NY. He had been a grouch and never allowed little eight-year-old Eve Benson get the combination she wanted. He was kind of like Dionysus, too. He hated kids and refused to give them what they wanted and never said their names correctly. I recalled him actually calling Lola and I Ileana Roadman and Ava Jenson, that's how I'd thought of those names to trick Hylla. I still had no idea how such a small moment in my life could be remembered in that kind of a time. You know, the time where you're in a life-or-death situation with some dark forces?

We certainly weren't on Olympus, or even near that street. We were next to an apartment building, and even though I was nearly dead and so were my friends, and don't get me started on how we were on a dangerous quest or how mad I was at Notus and my dad and Apollo (though I think I favored Notus over either of the Olympians), I had a good feeling about the place. Don't ask me, but I knew that there was someone good in there that would help us or at least give hospitality. So I couldn't stay mad at the god of the south winds.

I wasn't very much in the mood to wake people up, much less walk up that high (yes, there were stairs), but I woke up my friends despite the fact that we were all in severe pain.

As it was, my friends were all very indecisive with me. But when I said I wanted to practically hike up to those doors and find who I was looking for, who I knew was in there, no one but Kyle thought I was sane. And hearing that word 'sane' from him could hardly process through my head. Because he wasn't.

We walked up there and, timidly, pressed ourselves on through the doors. I had to admit, I was scared of my own idea. But I knew who was in there and I knew she would be kind. After all, she was Sally Jackson. I remembered what I'd heard about the son of Poseidon's family one time back at camp. And it was just enough and informational enough that I could remember and know where she was. Well, _they_ were. I knew Percy lived with his mom when he wasn't at camp.

But what I didn't know was what room she was in.

And thankfully, she was just sitting down here, simply flipping through a _People_ magazine.

Why she was down here, I honestly had no clue. I whispered to Lola, "There's Percy's mom. We have to go see her."

Lola looked at Mrs. Jackson, and smirked. "Her? But she's reading. People who enjoy reading can be boring."

"If we want to get this stupid quest over with, I sure hope you'll agree with me now."

"Fine. I'll go with it. Go with the flow."

"Good girl. Now go over there and talk to her."

"Me? You go."

"Fine. Greg, you do it."

"Yes, Love!

He ran over to Sally and tried to talk to her. He was acting real awkward and doing a bad job, but Sally smiled. I couldn't quite hear their conversation, but I understood that Sally knew we were half-bloods. She knew everything. She was a Mist-Seer. A mortal Mist-Seer.

After a minute, Greg pointed to my lyre and Sally paled. They got up and walked over to us, Greg giving me a 'thumbs-up' and Sally looking somewhat upset. I wouldn't blame her if it was because she had to take care of four stupid demigods for the time being. It must've been enough for her to handle Percy.

"I've cared for Percy all along and I've seen him through Iris Messages. I saw the Minotaur. Your case is a better case. A much safer one. Come to my room."

As close as I was to doubting that we were at all in a safe position, we followed. I had almost no clue what was going on around me, but I still followed. Soon enough, after rows of potted plants and boring doors, we were in the right room. Percy's mom opened the door and I looked inside. I smiled at what I saw—a neat little place, though I doubted Percy's room was of the same cleanliness. Almost reminded me of my little condo at eight months old. But this place was seemingly better.

Sally (should I be calling her Mrs. Jackson?) had us sit down at the kitchen table with her to talk.

"So…what's happening with the quest? Is everyone safe, is it almost over?"

"Erm…yes. Almost, I guess."

"Well, good!"

A ding went off in the kitchen. "Paul! Get your brownies out of the oven!"

Lola and I snickered. A grown man named Paul who made brownies?

I honestly couldn't have cared less about 'Paul', or that he made brownies. I just wanted the actual brownie. So I ignored Mr. Paul-Who-Bakes and waited impatiently for some desserts.

As it turns out, I didn't get a single brownie.

Which made me not care anymore, so I turned all attention to Mrs. Jackson. "…Why are we here?"

"You're demigods. Ever since that dreadful Titan war we had last year, I've been more willing to handle and help you out. I care about Percy's fellow half-bloods. Can I not?"

"…Okay." I didn't care too much.

"That's nice." Lola was good with the sarcasm. She clearly didn't care either.

"Yeah." Greg…actually wasn't being sarcastic. He thought Lola was speaking her mind. Mistake!

"I'm hungry."

Everyone except Percy's mom gave Kyle a look, and Lola slapped him upside the head.

"Well, I'm sorry. Paul made brownies, but I believe those were for something else."

"…Why are we here?"

"I told you."

"Yes…but it was a bad explanation. For me, anyway."

"Oh."

I probably looked like some sort of train wreck to Sally, what with the beat up brown shirt and ratty jeans, my hair pretty much in a rat's nest from the back angle. And my attitude wasn't helping me either, was it?

"And…how are you going to help us, exactly?" Lola asked. While it was a good question, I thought that one was kind of rude, frankly.

"Transportation? Ah, advice? I'm here."

"Um, ok," Kyle said.

Greg and I locked eyes, but I doubted I had the semi-pained looking expression he had on. Then he looked at Percy's mom. "Olympus. We need to get to Olympus."

Sally raised an eyebrow. "Olympus? I know how to get there, but you'll have to get past the man at the front desk with the key to 600th floor. He doesn't like demigods too much, but if you tell him that there is in fact a six-hundredth floor, he'll give you the key."

"Six-hundredth floor? That's kind of…high," I mused. You probably wouldn't get me to go that high. I had no problem with heights, but that didn't mean I liked them.

"It is." Sally nodded. "But if you want to get that lyre back to your dad—"

"Not my dad."

"Sorry. If you want to get the lyre back to _Apollo_," she searched my expression to see if that was better. "you'll have to go up there. And consider yourself lucky to get an audience with the gods…I wonder if Poseidon will be there. Hm." She looked at Greg. "If you see Poseidon, tell him I said 'hi'."

Greg nodded, despite his looking uncomfortable. "I swear on the River Styx that I will." Thunder boomed, and something hinted me in that the gods didn't want him to swear in the name of that particular tributary.

I looked around, shifting awkwardly. "How do we get there? And, where is it? Olympus, I mean."

"Empire State Building, six-hundredth floor. Probably get there by bus or taxi."

"Er, sure?"

"I'm sure."

"That's not what I meant, but, that's nice to know."

"What did you mean, then?" asked Sally.

"Um, never mind."

After that, there was an awkward silence. I could almost hear the crickets chirping inside my head.

We got pretty bored during that time of hush. I didn't suppose any of us liked the stillness.

Lola was scratching the table for no reason, Kyle was yawning, Greg stretched, I slouched, Sally looked at us happily for what I guessed was no reason. To me, we honestly looked like a pretty sad bunch of people.

"We really should go," Kyle broke in.

In my head I was saying, '_Like I didn't know. Blue ribbon for the brainiac.'_ But since I was shocked by his act of smartness, I didn't say it aloud. Couldn't ruin the moment, could I?

We all ran out the door hastily, but not without a 'good-bye' from Mrs. Jackson.

"Don't get hurt! Goodbye! Tell Percy and Poseidon I say 'hi' if you see them!"

Soon, we were outside the apartment building with her little advice in our heads. The problem? I mean, c'mon, we couldn't go the rest of the quest without a little problem. Or, a _big_ 'little' problem. Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyways, I didn't see any buses around. There were a whole bunch of taxis, but none pulled over to help four orphan-looking kids. Technically Lola and I _were_ kind of orphans, but eh. Ignoring that thought.

Finally, after about sixteen minutes of waiting like that and almost being mugged about four times, a cab came up. I was half-hoping it was the Gray Sisters, no matter how annoying they'd been. They could go fast. But sadly this was not the case. No smoky gray cab, no quarreling sisters. It was just a regular taxi and it's driver.

The cab driver looked up at us with brown eyes. "Money?"

"Well…how much?" I asked. I started searching my pockets and my friends'.

"$15.75, ma'am."

"'Ma'am'? Excuse me?" Lola asked.

I got $2.36 out of my pocket, which was weird. I didn't really carry money around with me. Kyle gave me $6.20, Greg took out a wallet and fished out three dollars, and Lola found 2 quarters.

I did the math, and got a bad result. "Ileana has 50 cents, Fredrick has six dollars and twenty cents, Manny has exactly three bucks, I've got a $2.36. That's only $12.06. Sorry, but we'll still need that ride," I said. I heard a gasp from the background, which was Kyle. "Le gasp! Greg! Why were you hiding three more bucks?"

"I, uh, like my money?"

"LE GASP! LOLA! WHY ARE YOU HIDING SIXTY-NINE CENTS?"

"No reason," she said hurriedly.

I eyed my friends. "You sad, greedy people." I knew Lola to be protective of her money, but Greg? It didn't fit. I snatched the money from them and gave it to the taxi guy. "Exactly $15.75. How's that for some cash?"

"Good."

"Good to know. Let us in."

He unlocked the doors and we got in the taxi. Like the beginning of the quest, Lola got shotgun and I was squashed in the back with the boys. And again, I was right next to the window. Except this one was grosser, if that's a word. At least Greg was next to me and not Kyle.

"Why didn't you give him that extra three bucks?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what you did."

"…Fine. I like my money."

"Yeah right."

"Ok, the real reason…I wanted to spend more time with you? I actually like the quest and the danger."

"You like the danger?"

"Yeah."

"Because you can save me if I'm in 'damsel-in-distress' mode."

"…Maaay-be."

"Thought so."

I looked out the dirty window. When I decided it was so filthy I could barely see anything, I played some music in my head. A Taylor Swift song got in there (I believe it was 'The Story Of Us'), a song from a Disney movie got in there (not sure which one it was), some random rap song got stuck in my head (I tried hard to get it un-stuck and out of my life), then another Taylor Swift song ('Ours'), and a song from that _DreamWorks_ movie, _'Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron'_. I'd watched that movie a bunch when it was my turn to pick a movie that night back at Symphony. Lola and I had always broken curfew doing so, but it was tradition to watch a movie every Saturday night for us two, even if no one else at the school did it (that we knew of). We'd both chosen '_Spirit_' a bunch, for some reason. I wasn't surprised to find myself with a song from that old horse movie stuck in my head. But since it was the sad song in the movie, 'Sound The Bugle', I sat there trying to figure out how it might relate to me in any way. I tended to do that and I didn't know why.

I fingered the strings of the lyre, and the tune was actually kind of soothing and nice. Lola looked at me from her seat. "What's with the noise?"

"It's a lyre, not an irritating scream."

"Whatever."

I continued to strum the lyre, no matter how strange it was. I ignored the fact that I was touching something of Apollo's. But I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a pounding sound on the roof of the car, and saw a boy peeking in the rear window. He was about eleven, I was guessing, with choppy brown hair and strange eyes: his left was bluish-purplish, and the right one was blain brown. He had braces, and he looked traumatized. I looked behind him, and saw a group of four _dracaenae_ after him. I wished I could get out of there and help. I mean, I knew he had to be another demigod. But I couldn't just get out of the car and leave, sadly. Besides, he looked like he was handling it pretty well. Although he was jabbing at the monsters with a Number Two pencil, he had managed to subdue one of them. Though he still had three leftover snake ladies on his trail, the one other being restrained against it's will. I still wanted to get out there, with my celestial bronze sword, but I didn't. I probably could have if I really wanted to. But somehow I knew that he would do fine, and I had this quest to worry about as it was. But I made a note-to-self that if I ever saw the boy again, I'd help out. I would.

We reached the Empire State, and just barely. The taxi had just run out of gas, so it was pure luck that it stopped here. Either that, or the taxi driver was seriously willing that thing to go on.

After Kyle tipped the taxi man with two pennies (cheap!), the four of us walked hand-in-hand (I made sure I was holding Lola's and I was on the end so I didn't have to touch the boys' hands) into the building. It looked pretty nice inside, and I saw the guy at the front desk. I whispered to Lola, "There he is."

Lola smirked. "Yep. Let's go…"

Lola obviously didn't understand 'let's' correctly. Kyle and Lola made Greg & I do it, those two tricksters. But I guessed it was what I deserved for not going up to Sally in the first place.

"Hello, sir," Greg said.

He looked up from his book. "'Ey there. What do you need?"

I gulped. "Key. Six-hundredth floor."

He raised an eyebrow. "No such floor."

I narrowed my eyes. "Look. We've been on a quest with monsters and evil people and danger. I was almost killed and he was turning into a freaking turtle. Give. Us. The. Dang. _Key_."

The man in the front desk raised his hands in defense. "Here," he said. He handed Greg the key, and said, "Just remember, whatever this is for, Zeus gets mad easily."

"Gee, thanks."

"I'm just warning you."

"That's nice. Later, loser," I said, forming an 'L' above my head with a hand, and we walked away with the key. We met up with Kyle and Lola, who were looking edgy.

Kyle looked at us eagerly. "Well? Got the key?"

I nodded and handed it to him, along with Apollo's lyre, and we walked over to the elevator. He stuck the key in a slot that took two minutes to even find (don't let me get into detail, please), and the doors closed on anyone else who might've been trying to come in.

As cool and collected as I tried to be, I was horrified. We were in an elevator, going up to see the gods. That shouldn't have been _able_ to _happen_. Yet here we were, going up to see some fate. I wondered if Notus would be up there, too. But most of all, I wanted my dad to be up there. I felt like he had to be up there. He had to be and he would. But then I got worried. What if Zeus blasted us to smithereens? What if my dad didn't claim me? What would happen when I gave them the lyre? Would they all hate us? I hoped that Hermes wouldn't be up there, however, he probably would. I didn't want to see Hermes or Apollo and I was scared of seeing what Zeus was like. Would he like any of us? Had Kyle and/or Greg ever been up here before? Could they comfort me at all? Would Kyle make a stupid remark in front of immortal, all-powerful beings that could blast us? He'd just embarrass us if he did that. I hoped he wouldn't even though I knew he odds-on would.

And do you know what?

We were just about to step into Olympus' main center, when Kyle dropped the lyre. It free-fell down the elevator shaft. The precious, priceless, golden lyre that we'd worked so hard to get, was gone before we knew it. The clanging of gold against the elevator shaft made me grimace. That had just happened. We'd gone through being ensnared in rock, being attacked by my old teacher at a fast-food bistro, being caught in the midst of a monster fight, being turned into TURTLES, for NOTHING. Zilch. Nil. All for nothing. I couldn't even believe we'd done all that for absolutely nothing. All for dang nothing.

Everyone's eyes widened, except for Kyle's. Kyle was more bummed than horrified. More bummed than horrified at his own mistake.

"Dad's not going to be happy."

"YA THINK?"

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**If you're mad at me, blame my sister :3 We were joking around one night and SHE came up with the dropping of the lyre. Don't hate me! 8D**

**Got anything to say? Review.**


	19. iRepel

**Sorry it took a while to upload this, I was having some issues with figuring out what to do next with dialogue and if the chapter should be longer. And even though it's a short chapter, I decided it shouldn't matter. If fans want to read, they'll read no matter the size, right?**

**Funny. Finished Chapter 19 on the 19th of December :,D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, iCarly, or Wizards of Waverly Place.**

**Claimer: I DO own Eve Benson, Demigod.**

**

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****Chapter 19**

**iRepel**

We all gaped at the sight. "YOU NIMROD! DIMWIT! IDIOT! STUPID! CRAZY! DISGRACE! DULL, BRAINLESS, UNINTELLIGENT!-"

Kyle gasped at me and tried to look all dramatic. "I may be an idiot, but I am _not_ stupid," he said matter-of-factly. I smacked him over the head. "This is no time to quote iCarly, you bum! I'm-going-to—kill you."

I considered throwing him over the elevator shaft and screaming at him to get his own lyre, even if it wasn't his, but I stopped myself. He was my friend even if he was an idiot who quoted stupid TV shows and I didn't want to see him hurt. I tried to keep my cool.

"I'm still going to kill you after this, you know."

"I don't think my dad will like that," Lola said.

I looked at her. "Lola? Have you no sanity? He just dropped the lyre. I wouldn't care if Hades punished me for giving him another subject—"

Lola widened her eyes. "Don't say that, Eve. Don't say that," she warned. And this time, I listened. Hades was the god of demise. His kind of punishment _would_ be death.

I nodded. "Okay. Okay…let's just get that thing before it's too late."

Greg pulled up the backpack that we'd had with us, although I hadn't seen it half the trip. I had to guess it was a magic pack, how else would it keep disappearing on us? He yanked out a long cord and some harnesses. Was this thing made for repelling or something? I didn't see how you could get this stuff into a small backpack last minute. But I took it from Greg and attempted to harness myself.

When you're an inexperienced fourteen year old female demigod, I don't suggest trying this at home. And plus, the weight of the harness really hurts. Take my word for it, never repel that many feet down an elevator shaft looking for the missing lyre of Apollo.

Going down was the worst part. In camp, I had experience with the rock-wall. But I didn't turn out to be glad that we didn't go down the same way. This was like climbing that life threatening wall, only upside down. Going the other way, the bottom side of 'vertical', abajo (yes, I'm using Spanish), to Hades' side of the world. You get where I'm going with this. Downwards.

I couldn't go down unless I wanted to skyrocket down there at top velocity. And because I did not want to go that fast, I begged them to make Greg go down. It was a self defense, which I swear I apologized for later. Although in the end, they all agreed I'd go down no matter how much I begged them to "MAKE LOLA GO DOWN! SHE'S SKINNY AND SWIFT! PICK HER PICK HER PICK HER!" But hey, if you were chosen to go down the Empire State Building right at the six-hundredth floor, millions of feet down to get a stinking instrument, you'd do the same.

In any case, I had to go down.

It was terrifying, so badly that I'd prefer not to relive it so I could tell you. But I will say that I got the tingles and gained that fear of heights I'd always been proud of not having three years ago.

"Come on, Eve, go! Go! GO! GO! GO!"

I threw a tool that I grabbed from the backpack at her, and she seemed taken aback. Still going through the shock of a small plastic hammer that looked like a real one hitting her in the eye, I see. And while all of this was terrible, Kyle kept on with his quotes. And now, he'd switched to Wizards of Waverly Place. And at this rate, all I could hear was Kyle saying, "NO PLACE! THERE'S _NO_ PLACE WHERE YOU CAN GO AROUND _EATING_ PEOPLE!" and "There's so much Juliet and I didn't get to do together" and "Did you say Crazy Ten Minute Sale?" and "I'm a part of your plan? NO!" and "That-Is-_Not-_Pandas" and "Popcorn's in town? That doesn't make any sense…Why am I so EXCITED?" and a bunch of other stuff I was annoyed with that I never wanted to hear again now that Kyle had ruined a good channel for me. Turned out that I never wanted to hear the words 'eating', 'pandas', or 'plan' or 'popcorn' and 'town' in the same sentence or anywhere ever again.

Lola was slowly giving me more slack (in rope terms), and after a long time of squeezing hard to a rope and harness, looking for golden lyres, and having to hear Kyle quoting iCarly and Wizards too much and being forced to listen to Lola's coaching, I saw it. And unless you know that 'it' means 'magical golden lyre I've risked my life saving oh my gosh I found it', things must be pretty confusing for you.

"LOLA, LET ME DOWN A BIT!"

"Roger, Ladybug-Of-Terror, I repeat, roger, Ladybug-Of-Terror."

I had no idea where she'd come up with such a codename, but I had no time to sit and chit chat about it. She let go of the rope a bit, and it was almost so much that my face nearly met the ground in an instant.

"Sorry!"

She pulled me up a bit and I grumbled. Trying to control my temper and fear, I shoved aside a small lock of my brown hair and tucked it behind my ear. It was Apollo's fault we were even on this quest, not to mention Kyle's dropping of the lyre. I'd resent the poetry god forever.

I stretched for the lyre, and nearly got it. But a certain elevator came crashing down right next to me, and I demanded to be brought up. But since I was demanding too harshly, they made me climb my way up. At least that was better than going down that thing.

I didn't un-harness or anything. They didn't even remove the rope from my harness. I would be going down again and we all knew it. "So, Eve…are you okay? Did that thing hurt you?"

"No. But it startled me. Can we have a glow stick or something and drop it down and count the seconds?"

Greg nodded. He searched through the backpack that was slung over my shoulders, but he didn't find a glow stick. Instead, he found a pencil. A stupid and useless pencil that couldn't be used for this, because it was useless, as I said before. But Kyle thought it was a _great_ idea to drop the thing down there and listen for a clanking sound when it hit the bottom.

"Kyle? This is a pencil. A _pencil_. Completely worthless. We can't toss that down," I told him.

But he dropped it.

"One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven…ok, yeah, eleven seconds. Someone should really be writing this down."

I smiled. "Bet you wish you hadn't dropped that pencil now, huh?"

Kyle just glared at me and grabbed a pen from his pocket. He wrote 'Eleven seconds. Probable death for Eve Beth Benson. March 22nd, 1996—September 15th, 2010. R.I.P. Goodbye, old friend' on his hand. I officially hated that guy. Real optimistic, Kyle.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't handed me the lyre it would've been okay."

"So you're blaming me for what YOU did yourself? Yeah, _that_ makes sense."

"Shut up, Benson."

"Last name basis _and_ some bad words? Kyle, cheer up. You know it's not my fault."

"…Fine. Okay. Whatever. Just get our dad's lyre, _now_," he rudely confirmed that I was going.

"Ok, Kyle," I stammered. What was his problem? This was incredibly out of character. You'd think we had brought Rosa van Cleaven to tag along rather than our friend.

"Good."

This was awkward. Kyle never acted like this. 'This' meaning hostile.

After that, I went down again. I hated going abajo. It was starting to get annoying. Another annoying thing would be my Spanish. Why do I keep saying abajo?

It took about fifteen minutes for the elevator to go back up to the highest floor (not six-hundredth. The other highest floor), and I saw the lyre once more.

I was slightly hesitant to touch it. We were so close to the gods, too close. If I didn't get it, they'd be mad. If I took too long to decide, they'd be irritated. If I brought it, they'd be happy but still irritated that I took so long. Apollo would probably fume, Hermes would try to be nice even though I didn't like him, my dad would hopefully be proud and claim me, and all of Apollo's girlfriends would swoon now that he could make his beautiful music again. I decided the better picture was the one without Zeus striking me with his lightning bolt and made a grab for the powerful instrument. The gold gleamed, and for a second the slightest sliver of me that was greedy said, _Take it for yourself. It's gold. You and Lola could be the richest people in New York and you wouldn't have to be alone without families or friends anymore. Take it._ But since it was temptation, a temptation that I'd grown to ignore in past years when I saw other people taking money from each other and all that, I knew it had to be Kronos. Kronos would do anything to try and get a demigod off track, onto his side, and make their lives miserable. He was a trickster.

I ignored the pain and tingly feelings in my stomach and grabbed up the lyre. I shouted to Lola, "YO, PROBABLE-DEATH! BRING ME UP, WILL YA? PLEASE! THIS IS REALLY HURTING MY SIDE!"

Lola smirked and put a hand to her hip. "_Probable-Death?_ Excuse me?"

"Forget it. Just bring me up, please!"

"You got it Love, anything for you Love, yes Love, of course Love, whatever you may wish, Love," Greg stammered uncontrollably, and brought all the cables and wires up, along with me, my harness, and of course, the rope.

We had the lyre back. Mission success. Kyle and Lola packed everything up and we walked into Olympus Square. The gods would be there waiting. For us. All of us. And who knew what their reaction would be to three beat-up looking fourteen year olds and a beat-up looking fifteen year old (believe it or not, Kyle was older by an entire year and he was the least smart) walking in with a lyre. Apollo's lost lyre, nonetheless. And the fact that it was lost and not stolen just made my disliking to Apollo worse—he lost track of his stuff too much, clearly. His sanity, his haiku syllables, his sanity, his lyre, his sanity, and his sanity. He had lost all of that and it was clear. I just hoped we'd never have to find something of _his_ ever again.

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**I know it's a small one. Sorry about that. But hey, it's up, is it not? And at this point in the story, all problems are resolved. Nothing bad after this unless you consider a slight disagreement with Rosa and a small fight with Thalia a problem. Everything should be fine now. But be warned, that says nothing for my other stories :D There will be problems and there will be drama. Greg has a dirty little secret, you know. But I can't tell you yet :B You'll have to wait until my next story.**

**By the way, remember that little boy in chapter 18 who was being chased by dracaenae? Yeah, he's going to be important. Don't forget about him or Notus. They're coming back.**

**Kyle has an attitude O: Naughty naughty boy. *fwaps him with newspaper***

**Kyle: -.- Thanks.**

**Me: You're welcome! =D *fwaps***

**Kyle: D: Ow!**

**Me: :P Take that, Delnz.**

**Kyle: BC Meanie.**

**Me: I KNOW, RIGHT? :DD**

**Sneak Peek For Next Chapter:**

** We walked into Olympus, horrified. I took hold of the lyre. I would _not_ let it drop this time. Not again, not after that.**

** "If you're not my dad, Lord Apollo, then who is?" I asked. I was almost scared to know. The biker guy from my memory stood up. "I am," he said. I moved my tongue around in my mouth. "Helpful, dad. Who are you?"**

**Okay, enough of the sneaky peeky BC I haven't even written it yet. I had that dialogue and script in my head already. Why did you think I showed you? O:**


	20. On Top Of Olympus, All Covered With Gods

**Sorry I took so long, I had a terrible case of writer's block and we found out my dad couldn't get the job he'd applied for, which caused us to cry because we're in a seriously sticky situation.**

**ANYWAY, since I made you wait so long, there's a treat for everyone who reviews this chapter: a chance to be mentioned at some point in either the second-to-last chapter or the last chapter of this story. Yes, I'd be willing to do it.**

**I suppose this chapter is a New Years treat :D HAPPY 2011!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO**

**Claimer: I own EB, D**

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****Chapter 20**

**On Top Of Olympus, All Covered With Gods**

We walked into Olympus, horrified. I took hold of the lyre. I would _not_ let it drop this time. Not again, not after that. That would be an absolute nightmare to go after it again. I kept it away from Kyle's grasp. And bearing in mind how rude he was earlier, I didn't think he exactly wanted to take it either. Neither of us trusted him, and Lola just looked plain nervous.

I couldn't blame her.

We were walking into a room full of gods…or at least, making our way there. Olympus Square was sprawled out in front of us, and none of us looked like we were having the greatest time ever at Disneyland. More like we were in a horror movie that no one liked.

Minor godlings and nymphs and dryads filled the streets, singing and laughing and walking and talking. They looked like they were having a good time, and compared to them, I figured we looked very out of place in the stunning picture of Olympus.

A nymph waved at us and smiled. Kyle blushed and looked away, smiling. I hit him on the shoulder. "Dude, I saw that," I whispered. I smiled at him for the first time since Camp Half-Blood. He clearly didn't have that crush on Rosa I'd once thought he had.

"Saw, uh, what?"

"You know. _That_. With the nymph," I said.

"She's a dryad."

"Same thing."

"No. A nymph is a spirit that lives in a thing of nature. A dryad is a kind of nymph."

"Ugh. Whatever, Kyle. Back to my point, though. You obviously like her, dude."

"No I don't," he said nervously. The expression on his face was one of worry. I decided to leave him alone after that. During the time we walked towards our possible doom, I questioned if Rosa would have acted the same. In fact, I almost questioned if she would be lonely without Kyle and people to beat up. No one answered me ,when I asked it aloud. They shifted around uncomfortably. Even Kyle didn't seem to want to talk about his friend.

The streets were filled with music and lively little tunes, it made me want to τραγουδώ with it. And unless you know that τραγουδώ means 'sing' in Greek, you won't understand what I just said. Gods, why am I using Greek? _Erre es korakas._ Curses. I hate the Greek language, and Latin. Looks like Isabelle's teachings are finally rubbing off. Κατάρες. And by the way, it's going to be crucial to start learning some Greek if you're going to continue reading. Because Isabelle's Greek-Speak thing is getting to me and I don't want to explain what everything means.

The rest of the way there, no one spoke. Kyle was still embarrassed, Lola looked very nervous and slightly queasy, Greg looked as if he was trying to pull himself together and do this. Lola had something around her neck. How did that get there? She'd never had a necklace before. She hated jewelry. But she was fingering with it and staring at it's beauty. I wasn't exactly interested in it, so I turned my attention the Muses who were sitting on a bench strumming lyres and whistling into their flutes and what not. But even though I tried to focus on them, I was thinking about my dad even more. I was going to have a problem with who he was, no doubt. I had a few suspicions on who he was, but I didn't bother going too far with it. Oh, maybe it was Ares or Hephaestus or Morpheus or whatever. Probably not Zeus. Maybe it _was_ Apollo. Maybe Hermes, maybe not. It might have been a lesser god. I could quite easily see Thanatos (although he was the god of death…why couldn't he be the god of death-by-chocolate? Or at least call him the god of everlasting sleep, if that softens the blow) or whoever being my dad. But I couldn't know yet. I mean, I really couldn't. Stupid prophecy. I didn't care if the _last_ line was '_As all winds down, a truth be bestown'_ or whatever it said. Although it was the end. Sort of. Almost. Ah, well, you get my σημείο ('point').

After lots of silence and rather awkward glances, we had reached the gates to Olympus' throne room. And it is incredibly safe to say that I was excruciatingly horrified. We were entering the throne room of the gods, and there was a secret to learn. How could I, at all, feel, in any way, safe and serene? These were the unpredictable gods of Greek mythology, and certainly none us felt good. Kyle was still looking very upset and awkward, Greg was trying to make matters better by making himself look perfectly fine with the situation, Lola was still fiddling with her necklace and looking like she could hurl at any moment. And I didn't suppose I looked any better than them.

The gates to the throne room were gold and gleaming, and it made me want to touch them. But I knew better—it would probably offend the gods, no doubt. And I wasn't about to take my chances with the gods.

_How do we get in?_ I thought. Well, that question was replied to when they randomly opened for us. We walked through an aisle of more nymphs and godlings and music and plants. I was tempted to make Lola give the lyre to Apollo and I'd be free. I could ditch these guys and call over a cab. Get the Hades out of that place. Leave.

But I didn't, wouldn't, and couldn't.

I gripped the magical instrument tightly. I glanced at Lola, who was still fingering that necklace of hers. I'd have to ask questions later—we were about to walk into the room of the gods. Time to stick together and not worry about minor things such as randomly gaining a necklace out of nowhere or the fact that I had no clue who my dad was. But I would soon. I had to know. My body tingled with excitement, but also dread. I doubted I could take it.

For a moment, all slowed down. Time hung eerily in the fresh air, ominously and actually pretty freakishly. It was scary. It was almost painful.

Greg shoved open the doors to Olympus, and when I saw all the gods in one room together, I wished I wasn't there. You'd think it would be a pretty sight, almost a beautiful sight. All of the immortal, all-powerful beings that were the Olympian gods in one room, in one gorgeously built Greek temple-like room. Most of the goddesses were wearing lovely Greek chitons. I spotted Aphrodite right away—a "pretty" gal with too much make-up.

I glared at her. She'd produced Rosa van Cleaven. Not like it was the love goddess' fault that she'd ended up being so cruel, but I couldn't help it. Demigods were impulsive.

Aphrodite gave me a look that seemed like an 'I'm-sorry-about-Rosa' look, and I tried to smile no matter how much I seriously doubted it would work. I knew I shouldn't judge the goddess of love just by her daughter yet somehow, I couldn't stop an angry feeling within me. I pondered on it that maybe it was my dad. It sounded a bit odd, but it might have been. Somehow.

Which reminded me…he was kind of right in front of us. He would claim me soon. I felt a tingling sensation in my gut. I almost didn't want to know who it was.

One side of the room had the gods, the other had the goddesses. The guy in the front had to be Zeus. He had a long black beard, a hard face, a blue pinstriped button-up suit, and a cold stare. Not who you want ruling the rest of the gods.

Next to him was obviously Poseidon. He had a Hawaiian shirt on, a pair of khaki pants, his hair was black like Percy's and his eyes were green like Percy's, and he was sitting in a fisherman's chair. His trident sat next to him.

The other gods on the boys side of the room were Apollo (I glared), Hermes (I ignored), Hephaestus (Greg smiled), the guy from my memory (I smiled awkwardly), and Dionysus (I couldn't help but look away from him—he was creeping me out). On the girls side were Hera, Artemis (she was holding a bow and arrows, looking peaceful, yet somehow I sensed that she could mean true danger if you upset her), Aphrodite, Athena, and Demeter. Off to the side of the room was a group of young girls who I knew to be the Hunters. Why? I recognized Thalia and they each carried a bow and arrows set. And for a plus, they glared at the boys and they wore shirts that said "Hunters of Artemis, Group of 2010" under their white ski jackets. That didn't give it away or anything.

When Zeus spoke, I almost wanted to hide behind Kyle and never come out.

"Demigods. Give me the lyre."

Lola took it from me, timidly walked up and handed it to him, then scurried back. She hid behind Greg, horrified.

The king of the gods looked stern. "Brave, daughter of Hades. You wouldn't have been my first choice to come up. Your father is my brother and enemy," he said, taking the lyre in hand. He looked at each of us in turn, but focused on Lola the most, as if wondering if she'd be worth while keeping around or if he should blast her before she did anything too wrong.

"Now, that we have my annoying twin brother's lyre back—"

"Thanks for the mention, little sis," Apollo interrupted.

Artemis rolled her eyes and scowled. "I am _not_ your _little_ sister. We're twins! Anyways, as I was saying, now that we have the lyre returned, we must determine who this young girl's father is. No one has fessed up yet, so we still have yet to know."

I was shocked. Not even the gods knew except for my dad.

I glared at my dad. He'd never told a single person, not one. He'd kept it a secret. I got angrier and angrier. This guy was a big idiot. Not telling his own family who his daughter was. This was pathetic.

I wanted to get even.

Smiling, I said, "Oh, but I know who it is."

Dionysus raised an eyebrow. "Really then? Who is it, Ava?"

I glared. "It's _Eve,_ sir. And it's him," I said, pointing to the biker dude. Athena didn't look pleased. "You do not know his name? Well, I suppose we should tell you. That god is—"

"Very happy to finally claim you!" he boomed, cutting off the goddess of wisdom.

She glared. "Honestly, can you never let me finish?"

"Nope." He smiled.

"GET ON WITH IT!" Greg shouted. I didn't think he would be the one to yell at the gods, but he was. Must have been Backwards Day.

Apollo stood up.

"I'm not your dad. Sorry about that."

"You're not sorry."

"…Well, I suppose that's true. Hm. I believe a haiku is in order—"

"NO!" shouted all the gods in unison.

But he was already at it.

"_My music is back,_

_She is so not my daughter,_

_But I am not sorry._"

He was the god of poetry and he couldn't even get the amount of syllables for a haiku right. "Lord Apollo, that was six syllables in that last line. One syllable too many," Greg said. Apollo just smirked and said, "Ah, I've got it! _And I do not care._ That's five!"

That was insulting.

But I focused more harshly. My heart was beating furiously in my chest, and I knew that soon, I wouldn't be able to take it anymore. Either I never knew my parent or I chickened and left, still not knowing my parent. I was really at war with myself during this time period.

"If you're not my dad, Lord Apollo, then who is?" I asked. I was scared to know. Almost. The biker god from my memory stood up. "I am," he said. I moved my tongue around in my mouth impatiently. "Helpful, dad. Who are you?"

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**Yes, I keeps it secret until next chapter :D But rest assured, my friends, she will be claimed correctly in the next chapter. Mark my words.**

**By the way, that is actual Greek up there. The thing that looks like 'Katapes' is 'curses', and I hope you remember what _erre es korakas_ means. They said it in The Lightning Thief once.**

**The "why not the god of death-by-chocolate" was kind of stolen from a site called "Godchecker", and in the Greek section, on Thanatos' page, it said that :( I am ashamed.**

**Hopefully you don't have to wait so long for Chapter 21. My apologies, really.**

**Review! If you say good things, Eve shall spare you. If you didn't care, Greg shall scold you. If you flame, Lola shall sic Kristen on you. Have a nice day :D *poof***


	21. I Am Claimed Correctly

**2 more chapters to go! Now, the secret is finally revealed: did Kyle steal the nachos? :D Nah, no, of course not. Who is Eve's dad?**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you get it. I own nothing.**

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****Chapter 21**

**I Am Claimed—Correctly**

I forced him on. "Tell me. Tell me who you are."

"Ya don't recognize me, kiddo? Heh."

"Just _TELL _me. I will _not_ wait forever."

I stood my ground and breathed heavily, both my body and voice shaking. A burning feeling decided it wanted to live in a pit of my stomach. I was scared stiff.

"Guess who I am first," he said. I was still concerned about what was behind those sunglasses, but it looked like fire to me. Fire…biker guy…rough…the way he spoke…I knew who this was. His Roman name was Mars. It was…

"Ares. The god of war."

He nodded at me, and a wave of shock lurched through my stomach in pain. Ares. My father was Ares. _Ares_. God of war and bloodlust. And violence. Don't get me started on all the other terrible things he was the god of. It isn't worth it.

I wanted an answer, despite my anger about "daddy dearest". An answer to this nonsense. "Apollo. Tell me why you claimed me and didn't allow Lord Ares to."

Apollo faltered.

"Come on. Don't tell me you're _scared_," Lola chided.

Making many motions with his hands as if that would help to explain, he said, "I needed it."

I knit my eyebrows. "Needed what?"

"For you to believe I was your father. I thought it would make you feel more like you were doing this quest for daddy and you'd be encouraged to do it. You'd want to. And you would. Would_ have_ if it wasn't for you being smart."

"Don't forget the many mentions of 'Oh, Apollo ain't your daddy and you don't get to know your real one!'"

"Uh, right."

"You have a stupid reason for claiming me, Lord Apollo."

"I needed you to get my lyre and feel obliged to do it."

"Well I needed to know who I was, Apollo."

That made the mood of the room even worse, which was scary considering Dionysus was there, Zeus was glaring, and Hephaestus' misshapen body and face looked kind of melted and waxy and it looked like he was glaring through a wax figure.

Ares turned on me and focused. "Hey, girl, don't think I didn't wanna claim my own kid. Blame self-titled 'Lord' Apollo here."

"I am not self-titled!"

"Eh, whatever ya say, punk."

"Punk? I am a god."

"Fine, whatever you say, _Apollo_."

The sun god smiled as if pleased with himself.

Something hit me. Now that it was in my head, I had to ask. I'd never go on without knowing. I just couldn't, I really wouldn't be able to. Not with such a mystery like that.

"Dad?"

He looked at me again. "What ya want, sweetheart?" It wasn't lovey-dovey sweetheart. It was a mock sweetheart. Sarcasm. I recognized it all too well.

"What happened to Mom? You know, after you left and she followed? I need to know. I need to know if I can find her."

Ares sighed. "Well, hate to break it to ya, but she's gone."

"Like, she moved?"

"No, not like that. Gone as in _actually_ gone. In the Fields of Asphodel, no doubt."

My heart sunk and my eyes widened. A single tear slipped down my face. My mother was gone. And this wasn't the kind of situation where you could try and re-create the story of Orpheus and try to bring her back. She wasn't trapped with Hades. She was trapped amongst many souls in a place where all the normal spirits went—not to the Fields of Punishment, not to Elysium. To the Fields of Asphodel. The crowded Fields of Asphodel. It made me wonder, for a second, where Simon went. But that didn't matter to me as much right now. My mother was dead.

"I…how?"

I didn't want to pain my dad so much as to relive it, but I had to know.

He sighed again and closed his eyes behind those dark glasses. "We left you in your crib in the condo. I begged Lily to go, but she refused to listen to me. After a while, I just gave up. Let her follow. We weren't even thinkin' about you. Just travellin' along. Then these monsters came, see. Tried to kill all of 'em, ya know, but they kept coming back in larger numbers every time. It was an army of hellhounds and _empousai_, the damn creatures. They took Lily. I tried to stop 'em, but they killed her in front of me. Right in front of me. And that was almost fourteen years ago. You were only eight months old and us gods are oh-so-mercilessly forbidden by Zeus to have direct contact with their children and or visit them. We can't stay with the people we have the demigod with, either. Don't really get it, to be honest…"

That right about killed me. My mom had suffered that and I wasn't old enough or powerful enough or even there to help my dad prevent it. I could've had a normal life at a normal school with Mom helping me and loving me. Or maybe I'd be home-schooled. Maybe I would have gone to Camp Half-Blood sooner. But then again, I would have never known Lola. I might have, seeing as she would've been attacked by Mr. Cyclops sometime or another either way, but we might not have been friends at Camp. Daughter of Ares, daughter of Hades. That didn't sound too good on first meeting.

And I never would've been wondering how Lola had mysteriously come to Symphony like a madman back in the second grade. She had said something about something chasing her. I'd always wondered about it and what it really meant, and now I really had to worry, knowing we were demigods. Now knowing this, it had to have been a monster. And if she'd been attacked by a monster when she was only seven, that had to be tough.

And I never would have been bothered by Mrs. Dailey or Mr. Blake. I would've been without them.

I would have been without this stupid quest.

But then again, I would have been without friends like these and this little chat with my dad. I would've been claimed already and I would never know about my mom.

Which brought me back to reality. I'd been silent for a few minutes and now Athena and Demeter were whispering something about, "Maybe we should do something?" I didn't think I wanted them to do anything.

Ares grunted. "Eve?"

"What?"

"I would have claimed ya, honest. But Apollo forbade it. He even cursed me just to intimidate me. He cursed me to rhyme all the time…GAH! It's BACK! Uh, maybe you should go. Ya never know, maybe ya'll see snow. OH, TITANS! Apollo, cut that out. It's making me a grouch."

Apollo sighed, snapped his fingers, and Ares seemed normal.

"Ugh, 'thank-you', Apollo. What_ever_."

Aphrodite smiled. "You're sounding like me! But, I mean, what_ever_, right?"

Ares frowned and sulked back into his chair.

There was an awkward silence after that. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do now. Go home? Stay here for a while? Listen to Apollo play music?

I voted "go home".

So did Lola and Greg. Kyle, still that idiot, wanted to listen to his dad play. I didn't want to listen to his dad play.

"Well done, heroes."

I winced at Zeus speaking to us. I knew "heroes" meant demigods in general. Most were really big heroes and that was another name for us. But it made me feel kind of good.

"Um, thank you, sir," Lola stuttered.

We said our last good-byes—Kyle and Apollo were practically sobbing while they air-hugged. Greg said a quick "See you some time" to his dad. I looked at my dad one last time, smiled, and waved. When it struck me that Lola had no one here to say goodbye to. That must have been harsh, being the black sheep in a group of white sheep. Child of the Big Three, mysterious unknown history, no father to say hello or goodbye to. She was as white as a sheet as it was. Lola didn't need anything else. Lola Ruman needed nothing more. She had enough pain.

I offered her to say goodbye to my dad, but she declined.

It was time to go. Some of the Hunters waved, and we left it like that. No more Olympus throne room. Our quest group was now exiting the building. When we completely abandoned it, we walked through the winding streets of Mount Olympus in silence, watching nymphs and dryads and minor godlings and listened to music and the birds singing. It was almost bittersweet.

I'd just figured out who my dad was and now I had to leave him. Leave the moments of mourning for Mom, leaving everything.

I was thinking about so many things at once, I couldn't even tell you. But I was certainly thinking over the prophecy.

_Demigods to find the stolen._

As if that wasn't obvious already. But it was wrong—the lyre was missing. Not stolen.

_Be saved by an immortal, a heart will be swollen._

I hadn't thought of it before, but now it made sense. Back at the Burger King when my old teacher attacked us. Thalia, who, by joining the Hunters, was immortal, had saved our butts. And Lola had gotten mad at her and said something like, "We didn't need your help." That line finally made sense.

_Travel to a land to mortals unknown._

It wasn't Olympus like I'd thought. Sure, it was unknown. But we didn't travel there. We'd unintentionally travelled to Circe's island. And it sure was unknown to mortals how dangerous it was. That was the perfume on the map. And the swords had been the cave of monsters.

_As all wraps up, a truth be bestown._

I finally got to know. I knew what the truth would be about all along, but I hadn't expected that particular god to be my dad. Ares. Mars. War god.

I found myself thinking of many other things at that time, but the most important was my mom. She'd died just by following dad. No wonder he'd tried to stop her. He knew it would be too dangerous for a mortal. Plus, ordinary people couldn't find or get to Olympus. There were certain boundaries that they couldn't enter. There was a veil of Mist, too, of course. She'd never would have made it anyway. It was pointless, completely pointless.

Lily Benson had perished for nothing.

We stepped into the elevator once more, and we went down in silence still. As much as I was against "Silence is Golden", it was kind of nice right now. The only thing that wasn't silent was the squeaking of Kyle's sneakers and the horrendous elevator music. Could they possible learn a different tune? This was old people music that no one cared about in the twenty-first century. Maybe not as old as I just made it sound, probably the 1950's or 40's.

Finally the silence was murdered by Greg when he said, "Well that was interesting."

"Yes, yes it was."

"Kyle, stop quoting things! I do not want to hear Phineas _or_ Ferb again. Or Sonny, or Raven, or Oliver, or _anyone_. Got it?"

"You threatening me?"

"Yes."

"Ok then. I'll stop…"

"Good."

"G. O. Double-D. Good?"

"You spelled "godd", you know," Lola pointed out.

"Fine! G. Double-_O_. D. Good."

"That's another quote," I said.

"You said 'Or anyone'. That wasn't anyone. That was a commercial."

"But still."

"Fine, I'll _stop_."

"Thank you."

Soon enough, the elevator went _DING!_ and we exited. I walked up to front desk and handed the guy the key to six hundredth floor, then we left the Empire State Building completely.

The four of us walked down the streets past beggars and such, then through an alley. At this rate, I wished Notus were here to toss us back to Camp. But he wasn't.

Instead, we ran into a Hunter. One specific Hunter, really.

"Ares, huh?" Thalia asked.

"Yep."

She moved her hand across her bow. "I'm no fan of the war god…"

I had something to say about that.

"Hey, your dad had his problems, too. There was Io, Semele, those many times he cheated on Hera. Don't get me started on what he did to Metis. I wouldn't talk if I were you, Thalia."

Thalia sneered. "At least my dad's not the war god, Eve."

"It's not his fault or my fault what he's the god of."

"So? He helps out in wars for the fun of it. He's killed for the fun of it. Remember the stories? He did something terrible to Adonis. And there were so many things he did wrong."

"My father tried to help my mom."

"Isn't she dead?"

"Yes. And unfortunately, you'll never be dead."

I had crossed the line with that. Thalia got an angry expression on her face. "Bring it on, Benson."

I held my hands up in surrender. "I'm not going to fight you, Thalia."

"Prove your lineage."

"What if I don't like war? What if I'm the one Ares kid who doesn't want to fight?"

That settled Thalia down and now she looked ashamed of herself. She probably wished she hadn't said something so cruel.

"I…I guess I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"You guess?"

"I am. It's just that…you're a different Ares child. You're not like the other bloodthirsty killers."

Greg stood there helplessly. He didn't want to watch this.

Kyle was eating little bits of leftover Ritz crackers from a few days ago when Hermes had dropped in. He had eaten those then, he was finishing off the crumbs now. But instead, he was eating it like an overly excited kid at a theatre eating popcorn.

Lola was looking very aggressive, like she could kill someone at any moment. And I knew she wouldn't really like doing that.

"Meaning Clarisse."

Clarisse had been my friend since the campfire what seemed like forever ago. Then, I'd wondered why I felt a connection with her. Now I knew. We had the same dad.

"Yes, meaning her. Along with Sherman, Mark…I could go on."

"Don't. You'll be wasting your breath. We're going back to Camp."

"…Go."

Thalia ran off into the woods to find the rest of the Hunters, who I had to guess had left the Olympus throne room. They'd been up there last I saw.

We could finally go home in peace. Yes.

Next things we did:

1) We walked in silence for a long time, bored as heck.

2) We found a misty creek and sent an Iris Message to Katie Gardner.

3) Let's just say that waiting for fifty minutes for Argus to arrive and pick us up could be a lousy waste of time.

When we Iris Messaged Katie, she showed up looking as worried as a barn owl who's barn was being demolished.

"EVE! LOLA! KYLE, GREG! YOU'RE SAFE! What happened?"

We all looked at each other in an understanding. None of us could possibly tell anyone in perfect detail how hard our lives got during the quest. Katie would never know.

"Sorry, Katie, but it's hard to explain."

"…Ok then. I'll make sure Argus is on his way."

Kyle smiled. "Thanks."

"Not a problem." Then she dissolved the message.

Remember those fifty minutes I mentioned? Yes, we had to wait that long for Argus to even find us. We certainly weren't like bright white glow-in-the-dark sheep in the middle of a dark night.

As we rode home, I reflected on everything that had happened to me since September 5th. From the chase of the Cyclops to the food fight to the dreams of Simon to realizations to the quest beginning to the whole trapped-in-a-cave-with-no-way-out scenario to Olympus to now. It was scary that it had now been ten days since and everything was over. Including the summer. I'd have to go back to Symphony now. Not that the thought of that disturbed me at all, but it was sad that I was still stuck there.

After another fifty minutes, we drove back to Half-Blood Hill and all of us were embraced by our friends who hadn't been with us during the adventure. Isabelle, Katie, Clarisse, Will Solace, plenty of others. Even Kristen felt obliged to hug us…to pick our pockets, of course. Why was I not surprised?

Then there was one more thing to do, and I was almost scared to do it. It was a big task.

Talk to Rosa van Cleaven.

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**Surprised by her dad at all? Probably not considering how I described him. It was so out there and obvious.**

**The next chapter is very short, then we have our epligoue. I'll get to the next story very quickly, though.**


	22. Rosa Rides Again

**Yes, this chapter was MEANT to be short. I aimed for a heart-felt moment between Eve and Rosa, Eve trying to understand as Rosa denies all. However my attempts didn't got hrough as well as hoped, the chapter still worked out well. In fact, this chapter means so much to me and the rest of the story that I felt it didn't need to be long. It can be plenty emotional and/or heart-felt and/or meaningful without being long. It is fine as it is.**

**Disclaimer: YEAH, yeah, I don't own PJO. We all know this -.-**

**Claimer: We all know this one, too! 8D**

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****Chapter 22**

**Rosa Rides Again**

It's bad enough when you just got back from a life-threatening quest and you have a new cabin to move into. When you have that going on, you shouldn't have to talk to Rosa van Cleaven. Of all people, an annoying Aphrodite girl. I really didn't want to. But it would be for Simon. I would only do this because of Simon. Nothing else could make me talk to her unless it was her coming up to me and getting ready to kill me with her spear.

It took nearly twenty-one minutes to even find that girl. She was hiding in the woods, sitting on a rock in front of a few rather large bushes. Rosa was crying, her head in her hands as she sulked in pain. I didn't know what pained her so, because I'd never seen her in a dark place like this, much less _crying_ in a dark place like this. I almost pitied her for one of the first times. Compared to her, I'd had it easy.

"…Rosa?"

She jumped and wiped off her tears hastily. Getting up, she put on her brutal, upset-with-me-for-no-reason face. "_What_ do you _want_?"

I restrained myself from spitting back some rude remark. I clenched my fists and teeth, holding myself back. "I—I can't really describe it. But I _have_ to talk to you."

"I don't _want_ to talk to _you_, _Benson_."

I was tired of her calling me "Benson" and not "Eve". I'd rather her calling me "Eva" or "Ava" or "Ella". Anything but my last name.

"And _I_ don't feel like talking to you. I have an Ares cabin to move into. But alas. I'm here instead."

"…Fine. Only because you took your time to find me here."

"Good. Anyways, before we left for the quest, you—"

Rosa recalled what she'd said. "Said that I'd never had a quest before yet I knew what it was like. I remember." She shrugged.

I nodded, and said, "I know what you meant. I saw it. In my dreams. You and—"

She turned her back to me and crossed her arms. "What do you know? Demigod dreams are _twisted_. That's just _how_ it _is._ You don't know anything ."

"Do you want a bet?"

She didn't talk to me after that. Rosa knew I knew all about her and Simon. She jogged away and I could have sworn I heard the faint sound of crying once I'd decided it would be no use trying to find her again. And that's when I left to have some fun of my own—getting my things into Cabin Five, the war god cabin. How exciting. I'd have to get my revenge on Lola for poking me so much and make her help me.

So I ran off, to take my things from the Apollo cabin and ask Lola for help.

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**What do ya think? One chapter left, guys! After that, I'll do a little "behind-the-scenes" and "original concepts" and other things in a completely new 'chapter'. Then I'll make a trailer for the next Eve Benson story. It will be called "Eve Benson, Hero". No, it's not at all bragging, we all know that all demigods are called heroes. The third one in "Eve Benson, Champion". They're all champions, as well. But we need not go that far into my stories, do we? No. We don't.**


	23. The End, Sort Of aka Epilogue

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Last chapter. I'm nearly in tears here because I don't want it to be over xDD But, eh, I have my sequel to tend to :}

Great, now my friend Noah can be satisfied that I finished it ebfore Tuesday BC Weirdo-Who-Demanded-I'd-Have-It-At-School-On-Tuesday.

Remember what I promised to do if someone commented chapter 20? That finally comes into place.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.

Kristen (c) Shadowhuntress on fire

Lena & Brenton (c) Cookiecrumbs976

Evangaline Anderson (c) alexandriarulzforeva

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**Chapter 23**

**The End, Sort Of (aka Epilogue)**

As I walked around the camp, trying to find Lola and _not_ run into Rosa, I realized that Lola would never help me move into my cabin. She was _Lola_. She didn't help anybody when she didn't want to. I could bet she'd just poke me for bothering her.

But, of course, I was a risk taker.

I searched the arena. No Lola. I went to the archery range and all I found was Percy making the serious mistake of trying to fire an arrow. I left quickly. Everywhere I searched in Camp, she was nowhere to be found. I searched all the cabins, I checked the dining pavilion, I even checked the woods where Rosa had been before. Lola was absolutely nowhere. I'd searched the Big House, all except two rooms: the attic where the Oracle had once dwelt before Rachel became the oracle and moved into that cave on the hills, and one of the empty rooms that only contained a dusty bed, a toadstool, and a teeny tiny TV. I knew Lola wouldn't be in either. I checked the spare room, and it was empty, other than the things that were usually there and a mysterious bowl of potato chips that were molding. The window was glaring light at me, so I left almost immediately.

Where was this girl? When she had received the prophecy before the quest, she came out of the attic looking traumatized. She wouldn't be up there again, would she?

No, she couldn't be.

But I checked anyways. I crept up the squeaky stairs that threatened to break under my weight, and quietly pulled down the entrance to the attic, a little door with a pull-rope on it. Inside, I saw something horrifying: a shriveled up hag-looking thing. At first glance, I questioned if it was Lola. When I focused my eyes closer, the wrinkled old thing was wearing a tie-dye outfit and some old beaded necklaces. A bit of green mist wafted around her serenely. I thought I could hear the slight sound of hissing.

I turned to look at other things, rather than the mummified body that was starting to give me the creeps. There were stuffed monsters, such as a python, a harpy. I saw a large, sharp object on a table, and when I walked over to it, the label by it said "dragon claw". I didn't bother to read the rest of the little card. "Dragon claw" was enough for me.

On another side of the table, there was a bent sword, and the label read,

"_Scimitar of Kampê, destroyed in the Battle of the Labyrinth"_

I decided to be a good little girl and not question it. Questioning it would lead to worse things. And I did not need that, especially after just coming back from my troubles, and I didn't need that when I'd be going home to Symphony soon. Speaking of which, the school year would have already started again. Lola and I were late. But then again, would it matter?

Yes, yes it would.

It was then that I realized I had been so busy looking at things while, at the same time, thinking too much, that I hadn't noticed Lola crouched in a corner of the room. She had tears in her eyes, and she was messing with her necklace as if she hadn't even noticed me here.

"…Lola? What are you doing here?"

She jumped. "EVE! What are _you_ doing here?"

I made 'calm down' motions with my hands and told her about how I'd been looking for her all over.

Lola sighed and looked at me as I sat down next to her. "I came in here because I thought no one would find me here," she said, voice cracking a bit.

"Why you didn't want to be found is what I'm asking."

I'd never seen her like this. What was wrong with her?

"…I…I didn't want people seeing me like this. A daughter of Hades, emotional and crying."

I awkwardly tried to comfort her. "I think I get it. But, why are you crying? I haven't seen you like this in a long time. Not since…" I stopped. She knew what I was talking about.

"Not since my first couple weeks at Symphony?" I nodded. That was what I'd been talking about.

"Mhm. So…why are you crying?"

Lola looked at me with sad eyes. "Back in that cave. In the huge cage, I didn't think I'd see one again…"

I gave her a puzzled look. I didn't know what was in the cage, but by now, I intended to find out. "See what again? Lola, what's going on?"

"Aetheopian drakon. One of those babies is the entire reason I ever got to Symphony in the first place."

I gasped inside. "What was it you said when you first got there? That you'd been chased by 'an evil dragon'?" Things were coming back to me now. I recalled more, understood more.

She stifled a small laugh at how foolish she'd been back then. "Yes. Nobody believed me. You seemed to realize that I was telling the truth. Everyone else? They laughed at me and said my imagination was too wide. They said I didn't belong. They… they called me stupid. Sometimes."

"That's why you were mad at me when I didn't get your sword to you fast enough, when the monsters tried pushing you into the cage with that thing."

Lola nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"I…I didn't want to risk becoming monster chow again. I didn't want what happened then to happen again. I'd had a bad past with a drakon and I didn't want to see one again. I just couldn't. I've been scared, every day, since that day in second grade, that one would find me. More like _something_ would find me, in general, but especially that. I still have the scars from that encounter, seven years ago."

She rolled up her sleeve, and on her arm, there were huge, red marks that were still bright red. I was guessing that drakon venom did that—kept it that bright red all these years. I felt horrible. This had happened to my best friend and I'd never even known. Lola rolled her sleeve down again and there was a moment of silence, clinging the air.

"I swear on the River Styx, if I ever see one again, I'll do something."

Lola looked at me with pity. "You have no clue what you just swore. The Styx is big about promises. If you break your promise, it could kill you."

"Don't worry. I don't intend to meet any drakon again. I did say _IF_, you know. Not to worry," I said.

She settled down a bit. "I guess you're right…"

After a several minutes of sitting there while Lola cried some more (she was bawling in my lap, as if someone had just died), me trying to comfort her, and awkwardness hanging in the air restlessly, she calmed down and started messing with her necklace again. As I got a better look at it, it had a silver chain. Each little chain was small and delicate. In the middle, there was a tiny, intricate celestial bronze sword. I didn't know how someone could even do that, make something so small and detailed. Small, detailed, beautiful.

"Lola, can I ask you something?" I said.

She nodded her head. "Sure. I suppose."

I pointed to the necklace. "Where did you get that from?"

She picked it up, the necklace still around her neck. "Oh. Just Nico, really. I've been hiding it during the quest, didn't feel like explaining to anyone. But by the time we got to Olympus…"

"You were so scared, you didn't care?"

"Yep," she managed.

"So, why would your brother give you a necklace?" I asked, smiling a bit more now.

My friend shrugged. "I have no idea. Good luck, maybe? Who knows. Why would he give his sister a Stygian iron sword for a quest?"

We both sat there and thought. Neither of us had a real answer.

"Well, now it's time for me to ask the questions. Why did you come looking for me? In here, of all places, too?" she asked. I fought back a lump in my throat.

"To tell you the truth, I wanted you to help me move my stuff to the Ares cabin." When she started to get up, as if to say, "Ok, let's go," I added, "But you can forget about that. You're in too much stress already."

"But I want to come. If you don't want my help, sure, but I still want to be there to talk with someone. It _is_ pretty melancholy in here, especially with _her_ here." She pointed to the old mummified body of the person who used to be the Oracle, and I shivered. It was creeping me out more than I thought.

We both stood up, and left in a hurry. This place was giving both of us the creeps.

By the time we got to the Apollo cabin to grab my stuff, it was nearly sunset. I couldn't believe it was that late already, and we'd only just got back from that stupid quest. That was pretty weird. I decided I should ignore that and head straight to the Ares cabin, and we did so.

As we walked past the Athena cabin and found the Ares cabin, cabin five, next to it, we walked up the front steps and studied the place. The outside of the cabin was bright red, with some peeling paint in places, and a large boar head at the, er, "head" of the cabin. That would get disturbing very quickly, I knew that much.

I pried the door open hesitantly, with Lola urging me on from behind me. When we came in, we were "greeted" by a few Ares campers. "Greeted" meaning "beat up". Clarisse didn't get in on the fight, just watched pitifully by her bunk, as if this were normal and she'd been through it, too.

After a couple minutes of being bruised, tattered, beaten, punched, and probably scarred, Clarisse realized this was quite enough. "GORDON, SHERMAN, MARK, CUT IT OUT!"

"What, Clarisse? You gonna hurt us?" Mark taunted, making kissy fish motions with his mouth.

She tensed, and I saw the anger in her expression. This was someone you didn't want to mess with. "Shut _up_, Mark. Let the newbie live in peace. Now, I generally have that whole initiation for the new kids… you remember Prissy. Oh, sorry, I meant _Percy_. But since this is another Ares camper, I'm laying off. And since _I'm_ cabin counselor around here, you do what I say. And I _say_, back off. Got it, punkie?"

Mark seemed to shiver a bit. Clarisse had certainly made her point—that she was not to be messed with. Sherman and Gordon went to sit on their beds, glowering at Clarisse and her doing the same in return. "Quit that, Gordon Prowls. I don't tolerate people in my cabin hatin' the cabin's counselor. I- hey, Sherman, I saw that. Don't you dare make a kicking-her-in-the-butt motion with your foot. I am the counselor for the Ares cabin, you know I can hurt you, so let's not get into it, 'kay? Good. You've all seen me with a sword."

For a moment, even I was scared, and Lola looked just as worried that we could be her next target at any time.

Clarisse walked up to us and smirked, arms crossed. "Sorry 'bout them, they don't seem to agree that I have power over them." She glared at the boys, who snickered, and she turned around to give them the evil eye, and she put her fist in the air. With her other hand, she grabbed a cracker from her pocket that came from who-knows-where, put it in her balled hand, and said, "This cracker? You." Then she crushed it and dropped the crumbly remains on the cabin floor. "Got that, boys?"

They nodded, each with wide eyes.

Clarisse took on a look of pride. "Good." She turned to us again. "I'll 'escort' the bozos out of here, while you can get your stuff unpacked, got it?"

We nodded. There was no disagreeing with this girl.

My half-sister took the boys by the shirts and practically tossed them out the door, then followed to make sure they weren't coming back in. I grimaced.

Lola handed me a huge bag of things we'd taken from my old cabin. Toiletries, blankets, clothes, other additional items including the three things I took from my dorm in Symphony. I seriously wished Barry had let me have my other things…eh, oh well. I'd be back at Symphony soon. Most people had already gone back to their homes and schools, only the year-rounders and the four of us friends remained. But yet, part of me didn't want to go back. Even though I wanted to more than I didn't want to, I had that little feeling that going back might lead to awkwardness and such. But I knew that I wasn't going to be staying here. I would go back. A tiny feeling still told me otherwise, but I was going to Symphony again. No matter how much the other half of me fought against it.

Lola nodded towards a black-and-white picture of my mom in a little bronze frame. I blushed a little. "I don't remember seeing that back in our dorm. Where'd ya get that?"

I set it on a little nightstand next to my bed. "I've always had it with me, always. I just hid it…underneath my bed…in a box, that was inside a case, that was inside of another case. Which was inside of a guitar case."

"I _wondered_ why that was in our room when you didn't play guitar!"

"Yeah. But, in my defense, ya should've checked what was in that thing."

"Guiltiest charged."

I took all of my clothes out and stuffed them un-tidily into a small dresser next to my bunk. Top, socks. Second drawer, shirts. Third drawer, pants and jeans and stuff. Fourth drawer had underwear. Yes, I dare speak the name of "underwear". And the fifth drawer, the drawer at the bottom, I stuffed the plans for an ultra sweet shield that I'd kind of nicked from Greg's cabin before the quest. I'd liked it so much, and it was so cool, I'd have to spend a lot of my time on it. I wanted this shield. Fortunately, Lola was taking out other things from the duffel bag and didn't notice it.

I went back to thoughts of Symphony, the terrible yet awesome times I'd spent there. Not like I had spent them anywhere else. Not like I _could _have spent my time anywhere else. It was a sad thought, yes, but they were practically my only memories. Not including the quest, which I did _not_ want to think about right now. I'd much rather think about Symphony no matter how much it brought back horrible images of my mom dying. I could just picture it. I was tired of the pain.

"Lola?"

"…What, Eve?" she asked. She clearly didn't feel like talking. But I had to ask.

"I…what happened to _your_ mom?"

This was apparently a touchy subject. She turned away and said, "I was seven. We were camping in the woods. A bear came. I'm guessing you know what happens next?"

I nodded. I got the message.

"I was on the run for weeks after that. The drakon came, I was chased to Symphony. Happy?"

I couldn't ask her any more. She didn't want to talk about it. As if that wasn't obvious. It was as clear as day that she didn't like discussing it, and I wouldn't provoke her to tell me more. That would be cruel. And, not to mention, _suicidal_. Forcing a child of Hades to spill? Yeah. Suicidal.

When we were done, I walked to find Greg, while Lola decided to go train. Sometimes, I didn't understand her. She'd rather go fight than see her friends on the last day of camp.

Lola was weird.

Finding kids of Hephaestus can be extremely hard. They either hide in places you don't expect them to be in, they hide in places you do expect them to be in therefore unexpected, or they wear chameleon armor and go super-secret-ninja-in-hiding on you. Thus, being the most difficult people in the camp. With the chameleon armor, they can hide from you no matter what you do or say.

Greg was one of those people who hid in places you didn't expect. I searched the forges, the armory, his cabin, and everywhere in between. Eventually I just gave up and went to the beach, where practically everyone else was. Some sweethearts and randomly assorted people were dotted along the sandy shore, watching the calm waves and fierce moonlight before it was curfew. And before Lola, Kyle, Greg and I left. I doubted that was even _hardly_ the reason everyone was gathered here, though.

I saw Kyle with that dryad from Olympus leaning their heads on each other, and I knew that I wouldn't quite understand the whole concept of "love" for a while. Rosa was off to a corner, staring at the moon, and I could swear I saw a gleam of tears in the light. I understood why.

Greg stalked up to me and asked if I wanted to sit with him. I was a little grossed out, because this seemed to be lovers' night, but I couldn't say no to the guy. So I said yes and sat down with him on the sand, allowing my jeans to get covered in the stuff. I picked some of it up, and it dissolved in my hands and trickled to the ground. I smiled.

I noted some campers I didn't recognize and some campers that I did. I saw McKenna Smith, who I'd last seen what felt like forever ago, with a shaggy-haired boy I didn't recognize, like most of the people in this place. Her brother Zachary kept close eye on her. He clearly did not want this boy to be trouble to his sister. I also noted Isabelle with someone, but I remembered one time during Greek Speak that she randomly started telling me about how she never wanted to be in a relationship until "she was twenty-one". So this boy was clearly just a friend of hers in which I'd never been introduced to.

Kristen was on the sidelines, smiling evilly and tapping her fingers together menacingly. I hoped that, for the sake of the others, she was confined to her cabin for two weeks (or months…) afterwards. She would either blow up a bomb, turn everyone's hair into pansies, or sic the living, headless, rubber chickens on everyone. Possibly all three, considering who this was.

A girl who's name I knew to be Elena Evans, going by Lena for short for reasons unknown to me, a daughter of Poseidon, seemed to be sitting with a Hephaestus guy. I was pretty sure I'd seen him somewhere before. Brandon? No…Braden? Nah, no, definitely not…Brenton? Yes, that was it. Brenton Ward was his name. _Looks like a Big Three child has a crush,_ I thought. _Heh._

I couldn't tell who Evangaline Anderson was with. For that matter, I couldn't tell if she was even with anyone. Her shadow made it look like there was someone else with her. For another matter…how do I know her name? This is weird. I've become…social!

I looked at Kyle one more time. He looked so happy. Maybe this dryad would be a good influence on him and he'd get _smarter_, rather than _dumber ._If "dumber" is even a word…

I wasn't concerned about seeing Lola again today. I'd be going back to Symphony with her later. Symphony. School. _Home_, I thought.

I looked at Greg next to me. Maybe I'd fall pawn to him someday…someday. I'm not saying I ever liked him like that at this point. This was only my first year. I'd only known him for ten days. This entire thing had only been ten days. From coming here to now. Only ten days. Actually pretty shocking considering how we'd almost been killed a _few_ times and I'd just learned who my dad was _today_. And, of course, finding out about my mom. That had been huge for me. Possibly the biggest news I'd received in ten days. Or, ever, for such a matter.

Greg caught me looking at him and tried holding my hand. I recoiled and refused to let him do anything with it.

After a few minutes of silent staring at the moonlight and listening to gushy love romances in the background, a star swirled around in the sky, and several gasps filled the air. Artemis was making a little light show for us. Granted, no star or pretty light trick every showed up again, but who could say it wasn't Artemis?

Oh yeah, that's right. _They couldn't._

What proof did they have?

None.

I thought about everything I'd been through, and all of it was bittersweet. Looking back on it, I seemed so young and helpless but ten days ago. It was amazing how much could change a person in such short a time. The friends you could make, the times you could have, the times of nearly being killed by both Aphrodite children and monsters you could have. How ironic that the _female_ child of the _goddess_ of _love_ and _beauty_ could be so deadly.

Greg turned on me and kissed me, and I was utterly shocked. I certainly didn't like it…so, I shoved his face away.

"What was that for?" I asked stupidly.

"Because I like you. A lot. And, I wanted to thank you for persuading Lola to let me on the quest."

"It was Mr. D that got Chiron to let us have four people and that was only out of wanting less campers. Thank him. Just…don't kiss him. That would be disgusting."

He chuckled. "I'd never."

"Thank gods."

When he tried to kiss me again, I smirked, got up, and started running away, smiling, with him following me. I decided that, maybe, something good had happened to me after all.

* * *

**WWWWOOOOOOOOO! I'M DONE! Time for Eve Benson, Hero some time soon...meh. But for now, I demand a writing BREAK. I'm TIRED D: Well, I'll see ya guys later when I do my behind-the-scenes/original concepts thing, my trailer for the sequel, and interviews with some of the characters.**


	24. Behind The Scenes

**Welcome To…**

**BEHIND THE SCENES!**

**Original concepts:**

.I'll start you off with something more interesting than other things: I came up with Isabelle Slate, daughter of Morpheus, when I was walking home one day. She was a late concept in the story and her name was originally Isabella Blake. I decided that since Eve's evil vice principal was named Mr. Blake, I couldn't have it sounding like she was related and switched Blake to Slate. It sounded similar, so I went with it. I changed her first name to Isabelle, because Isabelle Slate sounds so much better than Isabella Slate.

.Lola was originally going to have very short hair, and even though she was still a daughter of Hades when I thought of her one late night (the same night I thought of Eve, Kyle, and Greg), she was practically a completely different person.

.In my original drafts that hang about in my brain, Greg liked Lola and Eve ended up with no one as Kyle did the same. As almost a month or so passed, I had completely forgotten who Greg was supposed to like, so I ended up deciding that Eve shouldn't be alone and he liked her instead. Imagine the story otherwise!

.Kyle was supposed to end up with Lola along the way as Lola became more goofy with Kyle's terrible influence, but I thought, "Um…Lola is strong and fierce. Kyle's a dopey dork. That doesn't work too well." So, I decided to make it _seem_ like he had a crush on Rosa. That actually was originally supposed to work out. But I decided, "NO WAY! A dryad is a much better-suited choice for the idiot."

. I, at first, wasn't going to have any of the actual Percy characters in it. Yikes!

**Late Concepts:**

. Believe it or not, Rosa van Cleaven was one of my latest ideas. Yeah. And the worst part? I decided Eve should have an Aphrodite enemy…while I was on the toilet. Awkward.

. There was no such person as Simon Albuquerque when I was first creating things in my mind. He came up later than Rosa, to be honest. Much later.

.This is probably scarier than the Rosa one: the entire concept of Eve not knowing who her dad was, happened to be one of my _very_ later concepts. Yeah. My mind is a wonderful thing :}

.I wouldn't necessarily call this a late concept, but Kyle's stupidity is technically a newer thing. Do you recall in the first chapters, he was actually pretty casual and smart? I don't know where he went wrong xD

.Almost everyone who wasn't Eve, Kyle, Lola, or Greg, was a late idea.

**Mom:**

.I had fun annoying my mom with who the dad was. Sorry, Mom!

.One time, when she guessed correctly on who the dad was, I faced the wall and forced myself to stop smiling.

.She got confused by chapter 15.

.Only one in my family who has read every single chapter. As of late, my sister is on chapter three (which I forced her to read) and my dad has to start over because he left off at six about a month or so ago.

**Other:**

.I have WAY too many ideas for other stories.

.I'm sure Eve would not like me putting her in so much danger. Good thing she ain't real! Or…I'd probably be killed. O.o Painfully.

.I'm POSITIVE Lola appreciates me giving her an emotionally scarring back-story! 8D Well, two of them!

.Rosa will probably kick my sorry butt by the time we get to story number two.

.Surprised that Greg kissed Eve? Nope, probably not, huh? Yeah, it was something I had to do. She doesn't gain a liking towards him until the next story, but I wanted to get my point across that something will happen.

**The END ****:D**


	25. Interview 1: Eve

Interview With Eve

Me: So, Eve, what's it like to be a demigod?

_Eve: Not so great, no thanks to you. -.-_

Me: You're welcome! 8D Now, we all know you're terrified of dogs. Why is that?

_Eve: Teeth. Huge, gigantic teeth. Not to mention claws that could rip your throat open! I don't understand how people CAN'T be scared of dogs! Plus, they shed. My clothes will be contaminated. Oy, I'm sounding like an Aphrodite kid._

Me: Um…okay then? What's your least favorite kind of dog?

_Eve: Hellhound. Even the most sane demigod in the world would have to be scared of _that.

Me: I kind of meant non-magical.

_Eve: Fine, be picky. Dalmatian, then._

Me: WHAT? O.O

_Eve: You heard me. Their spots look like demon eyes staring at you. It creeps me out._

Me: That's an…interesting take on Dalmatians. O.o I'll remember to put a word in with Pongo and tell him that he needs to get that soot all over him again.

_Eve: Ha ha, very funny. Shut up._

Me: You, um, got it. Now…how did you feel when you saw Mrs. Dailey again? And when she kept popping up?

_Eve: Oh my goodness, it was awful. I already hadn't liked her, but hurting me throughout the quest and such really angered me. I'mma kill her someday._

Me: Good for you. Do you think you'll ever get Rosa to give in to you?

_Eve: *laughs* HA! You amuse me. Nah, at this rate, no way. Although I do hope to make her, oh, I don't know, _nice,_ I still doubt it._

Me: Well, aren't we optimistic? :]

_Eve: Ugh. Is there a goddess of optimism or something?_

Me: I have no clue.

_Eve: Oh well. Whoever he or she is, I hate them. Optimism gets you nowhere when you're a demigod._

Me: And could you please tell me why that would be?

_Eve: You don't know what to expect. You can't really determine whether this happens or that happens or this person dies or that person turns out to be a traitor. Optimism? Only gets you on the emotional rollercoaster of evilness. _

Me: Alrighty then. What was your worst memory?

_Eve: Finding out about my mom's death. It was terrifying and I don't like to think about it. MOVING ON!_

Me: Okay, fine. Best memory?

_Eve: I'm…not really…sure. Hm. Being claimed was great. And, as much as I hated it then, being stuck in that cave with Kyle blocking the entrance was actually kind of neat._

Me: O_o You liked that?

_Eve: Sure, why not?_

Me: Eh. Fine. Now…what would you do if I told you I had Kristen hiding backstage ready to blow up a bomb on your head while a vacuum cleaner sucks you in?

_Eve: *pales* WHAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? *holds me by the shirt* TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S BACK THERE RIGHT NOW READY TO DO THAT? D:_

Me: RELAX, she's not actually there.

_Eve: I-Will-KILL-You._

Me: Why thank you :D So, do you know who Rick Riordan is?

_Eve: Who?_

Me: Um… senior scribe at camp.

_Eve: Nope, never heard of him. Why? Should I know who that is?_

Me: Not really. But let's just say…he created Percy. That help?

_Eve: EXCUSE ME? I thought his dad was Poseidon!_

Me: It _is_. Never mind, okay?

_Eve: *grumbles* Fine._

Me: Good girl. Now, what is the weirdest thing someone's ever asked you?

_Eve: I don't know. Are you stealing questions from that interview thing for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban?_

Me:…No o.o

_Eve: Sure ya are. But, seriously, if you expect me to answer like Dan Radcliffe did, you-are-WRONG. I have never had proposals of marriage and I've never seen a "towel-girl"._

Me: Well, that's safe to know. How is a raven like a writing desk?

_Eve:…What? o.o You expect me to know this?_

Me: Sure! Now give me the answer or Kristen _will_ sic herself on you. *winks and thinks: Are ya happy Kristen? BC "

_Eve: 0_0 Well, that's not a threat or anything. How many tries do I get?_

Me: One.

_Eve: That ain't fair!_

Me: Yup! And if you get it wrong, Kristen gets to put you on her torture show! _:D_

_Eve: I hate you. Ok, um…they both…fly? Wait, no, I take that back—_

Me: Too late!

*Kristen is seen in the background, running towards Eve, with many torture devices*

_Eve: EEP! *runs into camera and connection is broken*_

…_._

_And all that was left were the screams of a certain daughter of Ares._

…_._

…_.._

…_._

_.._

_*_connection comes back*

Me: YES! :D I GOT THE CONNECTION! I GOT—

_*Kristen chases Eve (who, by the way, got her clothes stained no-thanks to Kristen's ultra permanent color ray thingymabob) and attempts to catch her in a net whilst bumping into the camera once more, thus breaking the connection again*_


	26. Interview 2: Lola

Interview With Lola

Me: Well, now that I have my _connection_ back… *glares at nowhere, suspecting Kristen to be there*… I can do my next interview. Lola, tell me about your past, will you?

_Lola: You already know my past, dimwit. -_-_

Me: FINE THEN, have it your way. What is your… skin of choice?

_Lola: MY skin, thank you very much. What kind of a question was that?_

Me: I have no clue :D Shell of choice?

_Lola: Ok, that's not a real question._

Me: Picky. Gaming platform? |D

_Lola: Um, the GROUND? O.o_

Me: Good choice! =D What about print preference?

_Lola: I have a question for you. Where are you getting these questions?_

Me: Nowhere o.o' *totally not stealing from deviantART form*

_Lola: Uh huh. Suuuuuure. So…got any _real_ questions for me or is this interview pointless?_

Me: Oh, I have real questions.

_Lola: Really? Let's hear 'em._

Me: Ok. Do you prefer ladybugs over beetles? Do you really have a grief striking past?

_Lola: You know the answers! No to the first one, DUH to the second one! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO FREAKING WROTE ME!_

Me: Calm down. When you were seven, did you have any idea that one day you'd be a daughter of Hades, make friends with an Ares chick, a genius, and an idiot, retrieve Apollo's lyre, and be a hero? :D

_Lola: Oh, how you annoy me to no end. The answer to all of that blabber is NO! And you KNOW THAT! *angry* D:_

Me: Goodness, I get it. Please be quiet.

_Lola:…Fine…._

Me: Good. What's the weirdest question someone has ever asked you?

_Lola: Back at symphony, when I was still seven, some idiot girl named Indiana Burkes asked me, "Are you a witch who went mad trying to find dragons and beetle toes?" Her question resulted in a slightly bloody nose._

Me: O.O… *totally not giggling or anything* :3

_Lola: You laughin'? _

Me: Touchy, touchy. I think I preferred interviewing Eve. You're actually kind of…rude. That's right, I said it.

_Lola: Bring it on! :D *attacks*_

Me: *pummeled* O.O I don't think our viewers need to see me get the snot knocked out of my nose and my spleen come out through my ears, do you?

_Lola: *has me pinned to the ground* Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. *turns to camera* You might not want to see this. *turns it off*_

_**Five Minutes Later**_

_The camera is turned on again, and a beat up interviewer can be seen holding the camera._

Me: Hi guys *voice is hoarse from being hurt by my own character* Lola left after she made my nose bleed…looks like I now know how that girl who asked Lola the stupid question felt. *grimaces* To anyone who dares say anything offensive to Lola…good luck and may the nurses be with you.

_Just as the video is about to be stopped, Lola's maniacal laughter can be heard._

Me: O_O Gotta run, see ya! *closes camera and takes off*


	27. Interview 3: Kyle

Interview With Kyle

Me: So, Kyle…what's it like having a head full of air?

_Kyle: What?_

Me: All the proof I need. Anyways, what do you think about the color yellow?

_Kyle: Um, it's… bright? And…happy? And yellow?_

Me: Good answer. So, what would you do if I handed you a cookie right now?

_Kyle: 8D What kind is it?_

Me: Triple chocolate with chocolate chips. Huge. A dash of cinnamon.

_Kyle: :DDDD GIVEGIVEGIVEGIVEGIVE! GIVEGIVEGIVE! GIVE IT TO ME, LADY!_

Me: *tosses it like a Frisbee* Fetch.

_Kyle: *fetches* :DD Omnomnomnomnomnom…why do I feel sick? BC _

Me: I don't know o.o'

_Kyle: D: BOUNCING HOBGOBLINS! I'M ALLERGIC TO CINNAMON! DIDN'T YOU KNOW I WAS ALLERGIC TO CINNAMON? YOU KNOW I'M ALLERGIC TO CINNAMON! HOW COULD YOU? DDD:_

Me: Geez, you're toga's in a twist 0.0' It's a minor setback…*torture bed flops out from absolute nowhere land* Get on :D It's squishy and comfortable.

_Kyle: MEH BC_

Me: It helps get rid of stomach pain :'D *totally winging it*

_Kyle: OH OK :DD *flops onto it* This is fun! BDD *bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy*_

Me: It's best you not do that—

_Kyle: breaks bed* Oops O: I hope this wasn't someone's actual bed…_

Me: It _was_ Kristen's… *forms idea* And now she'll have to shun you for breaking one of her torture devices.

_Kyle: Shun? That's a good thing, right?_

Me: Suuuuuuure…..

_Kyle: Ok then :DD OOOHHHH ! _

Me: *facepalm, mutters: He's committing suicide…* Hm. KRISTEN, GET YER BUTT OVER HERE!

**Kristen: What do ya want? I have a tight schedule. I have to wrestle Lola, torture Percy, cuss at Smelly Gabe…SO, WHAT IS IT?**

Me: *whispers* Kyle needs shunning O: He destroyed your torture bed.

**Kristen: Say what now? -_- He killed my torture bed? MY TORTURE BED!**

Me: Yup. Go get him. I allow maiming and serious injury. No killing…I'm gonna need him for something later.

**Kristen: Grr. Fine. *charges* KYLE, C'MERE!**

_Kyle: *stupid* :D Why, ok! *skips over* Soooo….what are we talking about?_

**Kristen: *attacks* YOU KILLED MY TORTURE BED! AAAAAAAGGGHHHH! *SERIOUSLY-HURTS-KYLE-LIKE-OMG* **

_Kyle: *on the ground* :c What did I do?_

Me: Don't ask, Kyle…she'll only hurt ya even more. And I NEED you for something D:

_Kyle:…Okay :C *in pain*_

**Kristen: *victorious* Ok, my work here is done. *walks away carrying a scythe, a spiky ball thing, a buzzer, and a back scratcher for who knows what purposes***

Me: :D Ok, interview is over.

_Kyle: WAIT! I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU!_

Me: Fine, Kyle, what is your question?

_Kyle: Why am I hated by weird Kristen girl? :C_

Me:…Like I said, don't ask. Just…trust me o_o

_Kyle: Okay…? O_o_

Me: OK, TIME TO GO :DDDDD *turns camera off as Kyle moans angrily saying that Kristen will pay*


	28. Interview 4: Greg

Interview With Greg

Me: So, today we have Greg. Greg, tell us, are you scared?

_Greg: Of what?_

Me: Your girlfriend. She's a daughter of Ares.

_Greg: Girlfriend? She's not- *gets idea* Well, yes, she is my girlfriend.*seriously hopes Eve doesn't hear any of this or it'll be the last of him* .But, no, I am not scared of her. Why should I be? She's a nice child of Ares. And she's beautiful, and nice, and awesome and—_

Me: Ok, ok, hush up before I bring Eve into that. Why do you like her?

_Greg: I don't know._

Me: O: Oooooh, I'm telling Eve. She'll be _mad_. Hehehehe.

_Greg: O.O Oh gods. PLEASE DON'T!_

Me: Not scared of her, huh? xD *chuckle snort*

_Greg: -_-_

Me: So, where's Kristen?

_Greg: Oh, gods, don't tell me you brought _her_ into this. I heard what she did to Kyle back there…wasn't pretty…she's…she's not here, is she? o_o_

Me: Nope. But, uh, we do have a little truth or dare for you.

_Greg: Isn't this supposed to be an interview, not a game show? 0-o _

Me: Yes. But I have some dares. No truth…just dares.

_Greg: But truth is better DB_

Me: Enough! Just do the dares :D

_Greg: Fine…just give me the dares._

Me: Good little boy. Now…I need you to hug Severus Snape for me. *jots down: Greg must hug Severus Snape in order to reach level two.*

_Greg: WHO! D: DO YOU REALIZE WHO THAT IS? THAT'S SUICIDAL!_

Me: Exactly cB And who said I wanted you in my story anymore?

_Greg: No way. You promised you wouldn't kill me off. Especially via SNAPE!_

Me: Just do it or _I_ will kill you :U

_Greg: No pressure there o_o *is magically transported to Hogwarts*_

Me: *transports there, too* :DD Yaaaaay. I have to catch this on camera!

_Greg: *running away* Maybe I can get to Camp Half-Blood from here… *bumps into Snape*_

**Snape: *bumped into* BC What is your hurry? *says things in his monotone Snape-like voice* BC**

_Greg: I…uh….*looks at me as I give him a thumbs up* ): *hugs*_

Me: *snaps picture, whispers* Got it! *runs away*

_Greg: DDD: *sweating*_

**Snape: -_- *starts to say a spell that will knock him backwards and possibly knock him out***

Me: NO! Severus, please don't :3 I need him for something.

**Snape: And what would this be, Miss?**

Me: I'm writing a story on him. I need him for that.

**Snape: I suppose lack of character might be a problem, HOWEVER, 5 points from…he looks like a Ravenclaw BC So, five points from Ravenclaw BC**

Me: Um, yes, Professor *sweat sweat* Ok, Greg, LET'S GO! D: *drags*

_Greg: *transported back to who-knows-where-we-were-holding-the-interview*_

Me: Hello :} Wasn't that FUN? :DDD

_Greg: Yeah, if you're a lunatic._

Me: Full offense taken 8D Now…*checks off task one* We have to go for level two.

_Greg: How many levels are there?_

Me: Three.

_Greg: Oh, GOOD!_

Me: Thousand.

_Greg: WHAT!_

Me: I'm only joking, it really is three.

_Greg: You're a witch._

Me: Thank you! :D Now, for level two…*jots down: Greg must insult Lola and call her names to reach level three.*

_Greg: What's that you got there?_

Me: What?

_Greg: Your notes. *looks before I can hide it* OH NO, NO WAY AM I DOING THAT TO LOLA. ARE YOU INSANE?_

Me: Quite possibly. Go. Do it. Now. Shoo.

_Greg: -_- *runs to the Hades cabin*_

**Lola: *beat up looking from an earlier encounter with a monster* What are you doing here? I'm practicing my lines for the next story. I can't wait for the part when—**

_Greg: I hate you D: Hades is, uh, pathetic and so are you, and—_

**Lola: WHAT-WAS-**_**THAT?**_

Me: Lola, don't kill him, Kristen put him up to it.

**Lola: She's going to GET it. *runs off to go find Kristen***

Me: You're lucky I saved your butt, Willins.

_Greg: But I'm not lucky that she'll find out from Kristen that it wasn't her. She'll kill the both of us._

Me: OH SNAP DID NOT THINK OF THAT ONE. RUN!

2 minutes later

Me: Ok, alright then. *checks off task two*

_Greg:…What's task three? ;o;_

Me: Oh, don't worry… *jots down: Greg must ask a Party Pony if they can give him a pony ride to achieve all tasks*

_Greg: The Party Ponies? -_- That's your big idea?_

Me: Did I mention you were doing this for Eve? =B

_Greg: Saywhatnow? _

Me: Yup :D We've had her locked away ever since her interview, waiting for your interview…and waiting for you to get a clue that she was missing from camp BC

_Greg: O.O And I get her back if I do this, right?_

Me: If you do it right, yes.

_Greg: I can't, like, fall off? The centaur has to agree to this?_

Me: Basically :D

_Greg: And…if I don't do it right? O.o_

Me: Oh, she gets sold to whoever might still be living on whatever there is left of the _Princess Andromeda_. No pressure.

_Greg: You're- A- MONSTER._

Me: I'm KIDDING. Kristen gets to put her on the Torture Show if you don't do it right. Not as bad as I led you to believe, huh? :B

_Greg: No…but Kristen is still a bad end 0.o_

Me: Meh. Whatever. Just do it.

_Greg: Ok, ok. *runs over to random Party Pony and attempts to get on* YAH, YAH!_

**Random Un-amused Party Pony: Duuuuude, get off my horse half.**

_Greg: Hey, look, she put me up to it BC *POINT POINT*_

Me: O.O *flees and whispers to self* They'll neva catch me :D

**Party Pony: Maaaaaaaaaaaaan, let's get that weeeeirdo. **

_Greg: *on top of the Party Pony* Charge! :U *points forward*_

**Party Pony: *gallops* Maaaaaaaaaaaaan. *chases***

Me: DD: *running*

_Greg: *gets a lasso out of nowhere and hurls it at me*_

Me: *tied* -_- Aw dang. *wriggles around in it*

_Greg: *looks for cage in which Eve is secured*…Where is it? :C_

Me: Oh, I lied. Eve's simply been in her cabin, recovering from what Kristen did to her. Everything is FINE. No big deal, buddy. *pats Greg on back* Ah, you're my dancing monkey :3

_Greg: O: *knows what that means* I AM NOT! AGH! *attacks*BC_

Me: And I thought that when all is well, it ended well -_- Good luck, Charlie. *turns camera off-*

_Greg: Hold on a sec…person who's name I don't know. We need to see YOU do all of the things I just did, minus the Party Pony._

**Party Pony: Heeeeeeeey, does this mean you don't like me?**

_Greg: No. But…eh. Think of it this way…a vacation! :D_

**Party Pony: Whatever, duuuuuuuude. *leaves***

_Greg: *transports us to Hogwarts*_

Me: *sees Snape and tries to run* :U

_Greg: Nu- uh-uh. *points to Snape*_

Me:…*walks up to him and reluctantly hugs*

**Snape: That is it! 10 points from Hufflepuff. I've had enough of you two.**

Me: *walks away and is transported back*

_Greg: Hello :} Wasn't that FUN?_

Me: Yeah, if you're a lunatic.

_Greg: Ah, we're in reverse, aren't we? :} *enjoying payback*_

Me: -.- Yes, unfortunately.

_Greg: Now, you have to—_

Me: I know, I know. Insult Lola, got it… *sulks to the Hades cabin*

**Lola: OH MY GOSH IT'S **_**YOU!**_** YOU LIED ABOUT KRISTEN!**

Me: O.O You're a stupid idiot, the end, period, exclamation mark. *channeling Reepicheep*

**Lola: AAAAAGGGHHH! *attacks***

Me: O.O *channels Harry Potter world and Disapparates*

**Lola: *accidentally stabs the cabin walls with knife* -_- I hate zat girl.**

_Greg: Ok. You're free._

Me: *runs* I'M FREE! I'M FREE! *whack job*

_Greg: Oh, how weird she is :3 *turns to camera* If she ever decides to interview _you,_ well…good luck, Charlie. *turns camera off*_


	29. Interview 5: Rosa

Interview With Rosa

Me: Today we have someone who might not want to talk with me. Rosa van Cleaven!

_Rosa: -_-_

Me: So, Rosa, why did you like Simon?

_Rosa: -_-_

Me: Rosa? Hello?

_Rosa: -_- I'm not telling you anything._

Me: You mean _other_ than the fact that you just told me that you weren't telling me anything?

_Rosa: O.O_

Me: :D Yay I scared you.

_Rosa: -_-_

Me: When I said you didn't want to talk to me, was I right or _what? :D_

_Rosa: …..BC Leave me alone._

Me: Neva :D

_Rosa: BC Mean person. Speaking of mean, you wrote my entire back story mean! EVERYTHING IN THAT BACK STORY IS _SAD!_ Why didn't you give me a happy one? D:_

Me:…Because o3o *apple nom*

_Rosa: -_- *steals apple*_

Me: D= M-my apple…

_Rosa: :D_

Me: Oh, you're happy now, are ya? BC

_Rosa: =3_

Me: BC

_Rosa: *triumphant, then resumes to previous glare* -_-_

Me: You don't say much, do you?

_Rosa: -_-_

Me: Do you?

_Rosa: -_- _

Me: I'll take that as a yes. Well, she's clearly not going to fess up to anything, so I'mma let her be.

_Rosa: :D Huzzah! *runs*_

Me: O= You just run away like that? You don't like me? D=

_Rosa: Why should I? BC *bites into apple*_

Me: Because I created you D:

_Rosa: Aphrodite did BC Take that._

Me: D8 *whimpers*

_Rosa: *leaves* See ya._

Me:…See you? :c *turns off camera, feelings clearly hurt…by my own character*


	30. Interview 6: Kristen

Interview With Kristen…0_0 *gulp*

Me: We have Kristen here this time…ok, Kristen, I have one requirement.

_Kristen: No cursing?_

Me: Yep! :D Now, to answer some questions…why are you so hyper? :B

_Kristen: Cuz Im mentally insane, ADD, ADHD…and its me. Waddo u expect?_

Me: I suppose that's a reasonable answer O.o Now, how was it to see me do things for you in all of my stuff? BC

_Kristen: … chese!_

Me: O3o Ooooo-kaaaay. Next question…how FUN was it to torture my mom with Eve's dad? :D Eh? EH?

_Kristen:_ _HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL LOL LOL! *gasp*_

...

LMAO LMAO LMAO!  
Yes.

Me: 0-o I'm not too sure I understood that, but I'm taking that as "it was very fun". By the way, you should know, my document isn't taking a lot of the words you're giving me XDD ANYWAYS, what do you plan to do for your next torture show?

_Kristen: MM, see, thats a surprise. If the half bloods knew *glares at audience* what I was going to do, then they'd be prepared._

Me: Oh, but you see, I am able to ensure you that they won't be prepared :) *flamethrower*

_Kristen: hehe. but, as we speak, Camp Half blood is being raided by FTEIGMEB._

Me: I'll pretend that doesn't scare me |D So, do you think perhaps you could let me help you torture somebody next time? 8U

_Kristen: totally! :D_

Me: YAY! 8D

_Kristen: just depends on whose gonna be in camp… *cough cough* NICO! *cough cough*_

Me: Oh, the joy! :B Now, moving on…which one of my characters is your least favorite? I wanna see if I can make them either more likable or even LESS likable.

_Kristen:_ _I don't know, I hate them all the same... Like, you tried to escape so now you suffer hate type of thing..._

Me: …Pick one :U

_Kristen: Rosa. Why can't she be more evil?_

Me: Because she's not a stabbing lunatic, you lunatic who wants her to be a stabbing lunatic :U

_Kristen: FERME (censored) (censored)! _**(Side Note: I put censored because I had no clue what she was trying to say O.o Carry on.)**

Me: GAH. _FIIIIIINE_. Happy nao? BC I shall have her...stab Field *totally hinted to a new character that I'mma have in the second story* and do more things to him :D Plus, I shall...I dunno o3o

_Kristen: Don't worry, I'm happy that she stabs som1. XD_

Me: Good :) Now, shall we end this interview with a raging stampede of wild horses with pony tails in their manes attacking the camp with pistol guns? Or perhaps unleash the evil finger-eating leprechauns? Your pick.

_Kristen: how about both? and…KYLE! GREG! GET OVR HERE!_

Me: Knew you'd say that. *unleashes everything* :DD CHARGE!

_Kristen: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GET EM! *shoots fart arrow*_

**Unfortunate Camper: O.o Oh gods that stink is STINKY. WHY IS THIS ON MY **_**LEG!**_** DX**

Me: YAAAAAAY. *turns to camera* Unless you like to see leprechauns chewing people's knuckles off, I should turn this off. Any last thing to say, Kris?

_Kristen: __Dude! KEEP THE CAMERAS ON! PEOPLE love SEEING LEPRACHAUNS CHEWING PEOPLE'S KNUCKLES OFF!_

Me: UUUUUMMM I think otherwise, Kris. Please just say something so we can go…I have BAAAAACOOOON :DD And it can be all yours.

_Kristen: GASP!  
Last words: STAY OUT OF SCHOOL! BITE YOUR TEACHERS! STEP ON LEPRACHAUNS! DIE OF LAUGHTER! BECOME A MASS MURDERER! COME TO MY TORTURE SHOW! BYEEE! !_

Me: :3 *tosses it* Fetch. *turns off camera*

_Kristen: MINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *runs to grab bacon*_


	31. TRAILER FOR 'EVE BENSON, HERO' IS HERE!

**It's what you've all been waiting for...your own personal sneak peek of Eve Benson, Hero! We'll see old characters and new ones, plus more scenes with relatively unknown characters such as McKenna & Zachary Smith, Louis Miller, and others! The idea for a trailer came from I'mAnIdiotButWhoCares, who made her trailer for When Heroes Try. Mine is somewhat similar, but, well, it's not for that story, is it? Now, be prepared to be scared, scarred for life, happy for Eve (not in the trailer, it'll be when they're on a quest later), angry at people, angry at people, pitiful, angry at people, laugh at people, and most of all, get angry at people. Good luck on the ride and enjoy!**

_Eve Benson, Hero_

_**Time flies…**_

_**And it's time for a new story…**_

_**This time, Eve is anything but alone. With friends close, some…-interesting- things happen…**_

_**A slight problem occurs…**_

"Come on, come on!" Lola shouted, exhilarated. Her smile shone wide, curly hair glistening in the light of the lamps. "Time to see..." she started. I was excited, too, but clearly not as excited as her…

Wearing large smiles on our faces, she opened the door to our old dorm, but what we saw shocked the both of us, and our smiles were wiped clean.

The room was empty. All empty, save the old TV that needed replacing and the now neatly-made beds. All of our possessions were gone, missing. We hadn't taken that much stuff when Barry had taken us to Camp last year. I knew that much.

"…Nothing…" Lola breathed.

_**Some changes are made at Symphony…**_

"What do you mean we're an _orphanage_ now?" I demanded of her. But the woman just held her hands up in defense and said, "I'm sorry, girls, but _yes_. We decided it was high time we make the change. It's been planned for about two years now…but, anyhow, the poor kids have been given donations, the homeless have been homed, and you parentless kids," she said, pointing at the two of us in turn, "are in Symphony Orphanage now. Not too hard to figure." The way she had said "you parentless kids" sounded as if it was meant to be hurtful and accusing. It wasn't exactly our fault, now was it?

"I can't believe you're doing this to us."

_**Absolute awkwardness…**_

Olivia glared at her nineteen year old son. "Don't be so rude, Quinn."

"I'll give it up if she does."

"Mind your attitude."

_**Quests must be taken on by certain demigods…**_

"I'm only fifteen," I demanded. "So is Lola, and so is Greg. We could die on this thing."

Zachary gave me his best death glare. "Do you want to help me save my sister or not?"

I couldn't argue there.

_**All that was well might not end well…**_

"I wouldn't get too close to him, Eve."

I looked at Katie with something that was in between utter confusion and a death glare. "What do you mean?"

Katie sighed, the Iris Message beginning to look more and more fuzzy, the connection starting to break. "Well, Greg used to…no. I can't tell you."

"Tell me."

She sighed again. "I didn't want to have to tell you. Nobody likes to mention it. Out of the people who know, Kyle is the only one who can accept it…who can forgive him…even I can't. Even Isabelle can't."

"Just tell me."

Katie looked at me, giving me a piercing look. Not a bad kind of pierce…almost like she pitied me.

"Greg used to be on the bad side."

I couldn't respond. It was too much. "…_What?_"

_**Slap…**_

I slapped Greg. "You know what you did."

"Then tell me," he said, looking desperate. He was sweating. He knew that I was on to him.

"I'd tell you, but you know _exactly_ what I'm talking about _already,_ don't you, _Willins_?" I said distastefully. Greg would get whatever he deserved for betraying the camp, including my distrust.

_**Slap…**_

Lola slapped Kyle on the face. "Look what ya did, you oaf."

It wasn't his fault, so I didn't know why she was taking it out on him. It was all me, according to Love. I was still upset that she didn't believe me. Now even Lola was becoming wary of me. Eve had left, and we were stuck on this quest alone, with some other people that none of us were particularly comfortable with. "Me? What did I do?"

"…I have no idea."

_**Slap…**_

I had to prevent myself from slapping Quinn. He knew.

"When did you figure it out, Einstein?"

Quinn clenched his fist, and his gray sweatshirt puffed up a bit. "The moment you left and said you had to 'do something real quick'. You didn't come back, and when I found a tiny replica of a lyre on your shelf? That gave it away, Eve. You're not that good at keeping secrets."

I slapped him.

_**Slapping occurs some more…**_

I slapped Greg yet again. "I believe you. But that doesn't get rid of the fact that I'm still mad at you for not telling me."

"Blame Drake."

"Who?"

"Well…"

_**Secrets are revealed again…**_

Rosa sat there, horrified. I couldn't believe the others were teasing her so horrifically. It was almost unsightly. Talking about Simon in front of her was cruel. It had been so long since I'd had a dream involving Rosa and Simon, I'd nearly forgotten. But it was a fresh memory now.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you care, Benson?"

"Because I know about Simon. And I've seen what you went through."

"Lies."

"Tell that to my dreams."

_**Certain enemies prove that looks **_**can **_**kill, and that you can't live long without some water…**_

Field looked at me with those stupid brown eyes of his. I looked closer into them, and felt myself falling. I had to catch myself, mentally. I wasn't actually falling.

"I'll never join you, Lent."

"Have it your way, then."

The son of Apate glared at me some more, and I could have sworn I nearly died. It was all too frightening.

"Get your eyes out of my head, Field."

"Not as long as you resist coming to my side. We could live in the same boundaries…we could be happy together…"

"What's it gonna take to make you get that I hate you?"

"Oh, I don't know…here," he said, handing me a cup of water and dumped the liquid in my hands. "Hold on to that for…a while…and you can save your friends. Bye."

Field walked away without another word, looking pleased with himself, like, _Yay! I'm going to kill them all! Ah, I love myself._ I wanted to scream at him, that idiot. He left me hanging. I couldn't drop it? What was going on? What was his problem?

I had to credit him, though. If this didn't prove that I hated him, what would?

I stood there, holding this strange water in my hand. It was slowly dripping at the bottom. _Oh, hellhound crap,_ I thought. I looked to the other side of the strange room, and there were my friends, stuck in stocks, like from the old days, only they were equipped with weapons. If I dropped the water…the weapons would go down. They'd die.

_**Lives are in question…**_

Greg struggled in the stocks. I took on a look of horror. "GREG!" I dropped the water and ran to him. The weapons dropped, and almost hit all of my friends…but someone had pulled a lever to stop them from killing them.

"_Isabelle?"_

_**Love is found again…**_

McKenna held him tight. "Corry… I thought you guys would never find me… I knew I was a goner. I had no clue you were on my trail. I'm so sorry—"

"You've got nothing to be sorry about. Go," Corry said, a stern look on his face. The two kissed, which sort of disgusted me a bit, but at the same time, I was happy for them. McKenna ran off with her brother Zachary, into safety and hiding.

_**Friendship is in question, as well…**_

"Rosa, don't hide it. Why can't we be friends?"

"Because I hate you."

"Thank you, that totally wasn't offensive."

"You're welcome. Now, c'mon, we have to go catch up to Kyle or we might not make it." She grabbed onto my wrist, as well as Greg's wrist, and took us away, chasing after our friend the dork.

_**Slap…**_

"Perseus Jackson, just say it!"

He looked a little green in the face. Annabeth had to slap him to get him to speak.

"I-I love you, Annabeth Chase."

"Same here, Seaweed Brain. Now…to find Malcolm and get out. Come on." We all ran in a hurry, Annabeth and Percy holding hands and leading the way.

_**A big mystery…yay…**_

"We're leaving camp in two days, Greg. And I'm not sure I can bear going back to my step family…"

"Theo and Olivia will think you've ran away. They'll be too sad."

"I love them. Quinn, I could live without, but I don't want to make those two sad."

"Then go back. Nothing's stopping you."

I looked at Greg with all sincerity. "Fine. But, dude, this new prophecy scares me. The one who Kronos wanted last year is going to be badly hurt, and I'm too scared for you. You used to be on his side…he could be mad at you for leaving."

"Thanks for worrying me."

"No problem. But, anyways, they'll be hurt badly. And I'm horrified that the end of the new prophecy has something to do with it...'_Death by your worst enemy, shall one endure'._ That's clearly either Field or Kronos. But I'm horrified that it will be one of us."

"It won't be."

I gave him a confused look. "How can you be so sure? The prophecy doesn't specify."

"No idea," he said, and attempted to plant one on me, just like last year. I shoved him away, just like last year.

"Just because we're closer, Willins, doesn't mean you're permitted to do that," I said, trying to keep on a stern face. But I was too happy. I was here with my friend, and I'd be going home to Olivia and Theo and Quinn soon. That also meant more school…woo hoo.

_**They have to undergo one of the worst of their tasks yet…and someone won't be able to take it.**_

_**Coming to Fan Fiction .Net in February, 2011**_


End file.
